


Crow's Disciple

by Tobi_Black



Category: Naruto
Genre: A Wild Gai makes an appearance, A Wild Lee sighting, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Itachi is a highly intelligent highly skilled killer, Naruto Loves Plants, Naruto has a Naruto hairstyle, Occasional Derogatory Language, Shinobi Headcannons Left Right and Center, Shisui is just glad Itachi is an ally not an enemy, Strong Female Characters, Trolling the ANBU, Uchiha Gender Obscurity, also this is bit of a game of Name-the-ANBU, and apparently the attitude too, hints of InoSaku in 1.7 and 1.8, indirectly this has become a game of Spot-the-Kakashi, the ANBU - the eyes and ears of the Hokage, which makes the Uchiha naturally doubt gender in others just as much as others doubt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2018-12-22 23:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 42,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11977122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobi_Black/pseuds/Tobi_Black
Summary: Sakura's just a child, a civilian, considered harmless. No one looks at the pink-haired little girl and sees the kunoichi, the shinobi, that she could become. They don't see the calculating glint in her eyes, nor the claws hidden. They don't see beyond the shy smile and tears. They don't see the loyal heart willing to give everything for those loved.Not yet.Revamp of Shisou no Karasu





	1. 1.1: **To Meet (a Tomcat)

**Author's Note:**

> I will be splitting up the previously ten-page average of the chapters some - to cut them down to a more manageable size for consumption.
> 
> Edit: 9/11/18:  
> The key for my editing, as seen in chapter titles, is -  
> *NAME: Grammatical Changes  
> **NAME: Edits  
> NAME*: New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arc 1: Spring Brings New Beginnings
> 
>  
> 
> Also, a reference of time is now a Thing, because I got tired of trying to do the math for Kishimoto's history for canon, did the equivalent of F*CK THAT and thus a vaguely still in-line timeline for canon was born.  
> VF stands for Village Founding by the way.
> 
> The timeline really came into being though, because I F*cked Up. Edits are forthcoming for me to fix that - going through and making sure it aligns again.

_March_ – **67 VF, Year 40 in the Reign of the Sandaime**

It was late, the sky overcast with dark clouds from end of the horizon to the other and a torrential downpour covering the whole valley as the rainy season began.

The heavy vegetation around, and in, the Village Hidden in the Leaves was quickly drenched. Plants bowed under the weight of the water, while great streams of rainwater ran through the mud downhill toward the Entrance Gate from the west. The Nakano was swollen and flooding the forests to the north and west as it snaked through the heart of Fire Country, guarding the shallow dip of gentle hills that Konoha was centered in. The carved stone of the Hokage Monument with its four faces guarded the back village, just as the mountains to the north did from Earth Country.

Most of the village, if they were not already indoors, was at least under cover if possible.

Over sixty years of experience with this type of rain that signaled the start of spring ensured that everything but the most time-sensitive of jobs would be put on hold for the few hours it was at its peak. For these spring rains always began with very little warning, hit hard, and then would take several days to weeks to clear up for life to return to normal depending on how bad the flooding of the Nakano was and whether the snows of the Tengū Mountains had melted with the rains or if they followed them.

Of those few that were out, they were: the ninja running urgent courier missions that could not wait for the downpour to weaken, with almost all of those within Konoha itself and an unlucky few going further out; the nin running patrol around the village Wall or in the forests around the village; the two rather unfortunate gate-keepers; some Uchiha a part of the Military Police; and ANBU patrolling the village proper.

Even with the rain, there were a few voluntarily out, like a handful of orphans from the Kyūbi Attack several years previous – five years and five months almost exactly.

This was mostly because the Orphanage, while one of the oldest establishments in the village that was nearly as old as the village itself, was less than an idea for most assigned there. Whether this was because these orphans were mostly the children of small no-name shinobi and kunoichi families, and children deemed too troublesome for the civilian one, and typically had slightly more developed chakra systems than the standard civilian but considerably less than their clan peers, or because, while the Hokage did his best, orphans were rather far down the list of priorities in the village, there were plenty of opinions.

(It was an open secret to most shinobi though that this was because there were those on the Council that were minimizing funding to it because of the existence of a certain jinchūruki there, and they were petty assholes taking it out on a child when they couldn’t to a bijū.)

No matter the reason, the Orphanage was a little run-down. A lack of funding with a  shortage of shinobi trained to handle chakra-enhanced children that could be spared from the Academy to supervise for the long-term, combined with how few ninja _wanted_ to care for the ‘Amaretsu-cursed hell-spawn’, meant people had to be forced to work there. And children, being the intuitive and sensitive creatures that they were, knew that they were unwanted and unwelcome by their minders, particularly when little effort was made otherwise for them, and therefore sought any possible way and took any possible opportunity, to be away when not forced to be there.

Hence why those old enough to walk and therefore _escape_ the clutches of the currently-assigned chuunin, were currently out in the rain.

(The current guardian was trying to corral those that had hesitated to go out before the weather worsened, into doing a thorough cleaning of the Orphanage for the annual visit of the Hokage. Particularly as the building had suffered from all the hard years since the Shodaime himself had built it, what with an overall lack of money for its upkeep, its age, purposeful neglect and abuse by all in it, as well as just from _housing_ anywhere from ten or fifteen, to thirty, chakra-enhanced children.

The chuunin was currently a little panicked because he’d heard through the shinobi gossip grapevine that if the Sandaime wasn’t impressed, that the one in charge was sure to get the worst C-ranks for the near future and that meant escorting drunk, hands-y merchants no wanted to do but were needed to be done.)

Two of those that had escaped, were a long-time prisoner and a recent detainee, at roughly five and a half and six years old respectively.

Even in such a small group as their current seventeen, the two had yet to really interact with each other.

What with how the younger because he spent as little time but as necessary with just two meals a day and being back for curfew, because more than anyone, he was unwanted and sometimes ran out for all but curfew. Then the older because she’d only supposed to have been there for a week while her guardianship was figured out, and two weeks since her mother died had passed and a weeks since would be there until she was an adult, but she still did not wish to attract the type of attention the other drew with his mere existence alone. Not just because she’d watched how parents pulled their children away from him, and the chuunin had done the same, but she’d yet to find a real reason for it.

Even in their mutual escape, they had hardly interacted.

The younger skipping out in the earliest hours after dawn, when the sun had just barely risen to peek over the horizon, and the sky cloudy but not yet dark with arriving rain, and the elder mid-way through breakfast when the chuunin had announced his plans to clean the place up when it became clear that the clouds were heavy-laden with spring rain.

 _He_ had run for the Hokage Monument after swiping food not-quite-good-enough-to-sell from the few vendors that had attempted to open in the few hours before the rain had arrived, to hide in the shallow dips in the rock beneath the chin of the Yondaime, where it was mostly dry.

 _She_ had hurried for the Archives, where scrolls of all types, containing all types of information, a section of which was available to her as a citizen, even as a civilian.

It had been where her mother had worked since the Kyūbi Attack had crippled her and forced her to retire from active-duty, until shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Clouds had infiltrated the village. While part of the group had attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress – and had failed – some had come to the Archives, and her mother had given her life to defend it.

Only, even with the rain soaking everything in the open in little more than seconds, and everyone else resigned to sheltering the few foolish souls that had still been out until things calmed down some, the kunoichi manning the desk had denied her request for information on the basic theory of chakra – and told her to leave.

Even if such information was technically for pre-genin enrolled in the Academy, she _knew_ she could access it as a civilian.

Sakura wanted to learn everything she could about being a ninja, about being a kunoichi like her mother, before she applied for the Academy in a few months’ time so that she could try and rejoin her age-group within the year, after having missed the cut-off to join previously by three months for being under six. It wasn’t typical for anyone outside the shinobi clans to jump year-groups, but it did happen and could outside prodigies during the first two years if a little ambition and reading ahead was applied.

She wanted to make her mother proud by earning her hitai-ate by twelve.

Hence why it was so insulting that the kunoichi thought her just any civilian girl-child, one with no business being here, let alone by herself, and told her to go home and back to clinging to her mother’s skirts.

Her eyes had narrowed as she _knew_ this woman; the chuunin had been a colleague of her mothers, and this was far from the first time she’d visited here with her mother. There was little way the woman _didn’t_ know her mother was dead, and so she was either being purposely callous and insensitive, or was completely inobservant.

Sakura didn’t know which she preferred honestly – cruel or stupid.

Still, she made to leave because while would enjoy arguing with the woman about what she was allowed and not allowed to check out at various ranks, because she knew the rules for the Archives in and out better than most, she had a better idea more suited for getting back at her than just looking stupid.

So, she went only as far as out of the woman’s sight, then smothered her own chakra signature like her mother had taught her – picturing throwing a heavy cloak over the faintly humming _energy_ she’d felt pulsing under her skin for all of her memory, bundling it up completely until the faint light she imagined it gave off dimmed and the quiet hum faded from her hearing.

Her leaf green eyes sparked with _something_ , a little too mean-spirited to be classified as just being merely mischievous, and she’d slipped back through the rows of scrolls for civilians towards the kunoichi.

That she’d managed to slip past the woman without alerting her, disgusted her, as here she was, just a pre-genin _hopeful_ , slipping past a _trained_ chuunin, potentially able to get to the information that her mother had died to protect from unauthorized hands and eyes.

The disgust made any of the lingering guilt, through rather miniscule as they weren’t really _comrades_ after the woman had dismissed the memory of her mother so easily after years working together, for setting a trap for an ‘ally’ _burn_.

Her mother had told her that Konoha was one giant family, all leaves on one tree, and that teamwork was what everything work. She’d known that there were some that followed this less than others, but her father, just a civilian, had given his life for this principle, and her mother had shattered her femur in the field for this principle. Sakura believed in the principle whole-heartedly, but she wouldn’t give that loyalty to somebody who would forget a loyal comrade so easily.

She slipped further into stacks of scrolls, intending to get the scroll on chakra theory she’d come for before she implemented anything.

Disappearing into the stacks classified at D-level, and therefore suitable for the more advanced pre-genin and genin, bypassing completely the simpler F-level scrolls meant for beginning pre-genin as starters that she’d read _weeks_ ago, wanting instead something a little more _comprehensive_.

Even while being careful to not draw the chuunin’s attention to her – because now it would be a point of pride if she _could_ do this without being caught – she wasn’t too worried about being found out by any _other_ Konoha nin. After all, initiative at her age in infiltration would almost _guarantee_ her a spot in the Academy, as it showed _potential_ , even if some of the less creative and skilled chuunin would rather see her punished instead of rewarded.

Sakura scanned the scrolls as she passed them, knowing the system well enough to what she should be looking at and just deciding now which to take, she deftly plucked out several that interested her and would take her a few days to go through, then slipped them into her loose clothing.

Amongst those scrolls was a beginner’s primer on genjutsu, the one she’d originally been looking for, one on anatomy, and one on the art of substitution.

Then as she turned back, her eye caught on an incorrectly sorted scroll – a B-level meant for no one lower than a tokubetsu jounin – on fuuinjutsu that had splatters of blood on it and just absolutely covered in advanced theory and various seals.

She didn’t think _twice_ about pocketing, knowing that the chances of her just coming across this _accidentally_ should have been _nothing_ until she was up for promotion to tokubetsu jounin herself, and she would have never even _known_ about it until then when she was first allowed into the section, if not for a streak of incompetence currently watching over the Archives.

It angered her that the chuunin left here in-charge of the Archives doing a less-than-stellar job with her mother’s pride and joy now that her mother was gone. Just one prank had seemed inadequate before, but her mother had preached that a good shinobi never let their temper get the better of them and that they should instead _use_ that anger. Temperance was not high on her virtues to master, because sometimes anger was too satisfying to not let loose when she thought it appropriate.

Like now, she had every intention of pranking this chuunin until the woman either shaped up, or quit.

Preferably quit. This _incompetence_ was just plain _unacceptable_ , and frankly, an insult to her mother’s memory. It would not stand if she had anything to say about it.

Sakura moved back to the front with the five scrolls hidden on her person, just as the scroll she’d left precariously balanced on its shelf, fell with a quiet _thump_ , followed by another, then another, and another, as each falling scroll knocked another down from where they were carefully balanced more than half out.

Her sticky fingers had also lifted an armful of scrolls and re-distributed them among both the F and D areas liberally, intermixing the two sections _thoroughly_ , as she planned to use the confusion caused by the currently building mess – and the _complete_ overhaul of the two areas that would need to be done to get everything back to their proper places that would take roughly a few _days_ with how bad it been organized before she’d done anything – to hide a few missing scrolls.

She knew that by the time anyone could be sure that these scrolls weren’t just misplaced into another section, she’d be able to return them to their proper places.

Not to mention that considering that she felt an overhaul of all the rows, hopefully just on this floor with the F-, D-, and C-rank scrolls, was _desperately_ needed, what with having found no less than thirteen misplaced scrolls in the wrong place and six more that belong in a different section, she felt _no_ guilt for the mess and resulting hours it would take _just_ to clean it up, not to mention to re-organize the whole floor.

(A darker part of Sakura was cackling in glee though, viciously enjoying messing with the chuunin who’d not only _not_ been the friend her mother had thought her to bee, but also single-handedly screwing up all of her mother’s work in organizing the Archives with her sheer _incompetence_.

That same part wanted to scream and pick a fight physically with the chuunin, so Sakura tried to ignore that part of herself.)

That vicious glee flickered in her eyes anyway for a moment as she watched the chuunin hurry toward the slowing _thumps_ , before rushing to remove just enough of the woman’s chair that it would fall when any weight was put on it but not a moment sooner, then taping a stink bomb beneath the seat. She charged it with her chakra to increase its potency, then started running, wanting to be _nowhere_ near it went it off because its range wasn’t anything to laugh at.

Sakura was at the door when the sound of simultaneous clatter of the chair falling apart and the loud _thump_ of the chuunin following it to the ground reached her ears as the rancid smell of the stink-bomb _just_ tickled her nose.

She fled without a look back, not noticing the nine-years-older boy perched in a tree not far from entrance that watched as she ran off.

Not realizing that her abrupt and rushed exit had the attention of the fifteen-year-old tokubetsu jounin with dark curly hair and onyx eyes, even before the scent of the stink-bomb reached him.

Even if she had been _afraid_ of catching the attention of a Konoha nin during the prank, she had not _wanted_ the sudden interest getting caught would give her, not without _planning_ to specifically get it. Sakura hadn’t wanted to stand out yet; she had only acted outside what was expected of her because that chuunin was an insult to _everything_ her mother had stood for. So, she had, and she wouldn’t regret it.

The teen quickly concentrated a minimal amount of chakra then flashed through the hand-signs for a clone, careful to deaden the sense of smell in the clone before he sent it off to investigate the site of the prank in the Archives as he discretely tailed the fleeing girl.

Sakura headed for the nearby children’s park, intending to seek refuge from the rain in the scant trees while she thought her next course of action. On the way though, and while she had yet to know exactly how to sense chakra on a conscious level, she still had the beginnings of a shinobi’s instincts and _knew_ when she was being followed when watching for it.

It helped that she was able to discern that in _this_ weather, that the chances that it would be a mere _coincidence_ that someone would be going in the same direction that she was, particularly when she took such an irregular route, would be next to nothing.

She didn’t even have a nicked kunai, having not yet had the opportunity to steal one from the chuunin at the Academy unlike most of her peers there as her intention had been to stay _out_ of trouble, or she likely would already have thrown it at the presence she could _just_ half-sense behind her.

Not that she knew more than a rough estimation of her follower, or had any _real_ skill with throwing kunai, so the effort would have just been barely above useless and leaning towards stupid to do when it would do more good in hand.

However, she _did_ know this area, and could lose her pursuer easily.

Sakura suddenly lunged to the side, _away_ from the park and into some smaller side streets, slipping through a miniscule gap between buildings. She paused just long enough to see that the teen passed her by before quickly turning back her way, as she was pulling the power beneath her skin deeper, because if nothing else, the doubt that would crop at her sudden disappearance would give her the few seconds she needed to hide her trail.

She ducked down and crawled into the muddy sub-space beneath one of the buildings, slithering along on her belly like a dog until she was down the street a ways, hiding as she watched the shinobi – who she recognized now to be a Uchiha with their dark hair, onyx yes, and almost-pretty features that really made it hard to tell if he was a she or not – searched for her in the nearby area.

Watching as they peeked into the small gaps between buildings, specifically the one she actually had but unable to follow her with his larger frame and not seeing any sign of a head of pink hair like they must have expected.

They spent several fruitless minutes searching any of the places they could see and think she could fit, and Sakura couldn’t help her smirk when soaking wet, and unable to get to her even if they guessed correctly where she’d went, they were forced to admit that they’d lost a _six-year-old child_ that wasn’t even their crafty cousin, and backed off.

She knew if she was on the other side of this, that she wouldn’t give up so easily because she could recognize the enigma she presented to them. What with being a civilian with any clan backing her, and how she had managed to on some level _sense_ him and then _evade_ him. It spoke to her potential, and she wouldn’t let herself go without at least a name.

Still, while she would have _gladly_ waited them out, particularly since they were still in the heavy rain and she was at least sheltered here in the mud, because she was a stubborn mule when she wanted to be and she would do it just to prove a point, she had things to do, places to be.

So, while she couldn’t get a firm grasp on _how_ to sense them, and thus estimate where their line-of-sight actually was, something was telling her they had gone high and across. Sakura crawled further away through the muddy sub-space to cautiously eye and empty alley on the other side.

It was a risk, because the _slightest_ suspicion, and they could turn to look on this side of the building if her feeling was wrong and they were weren’t looking down solely on the other street and couldn’t see this one.

She didn’t trust that it would be empty for much longer.

Sakura pulled herself out of the mud and darted forward into the alley, snaking her way through side-streets with random left and right turns, slipping through small gaps between possible when possible, to head in the vaguest sense, the opposite direction of the park.

She knew thought, that if they _really_ wanted to find her, that they would find her _eventually_ regardless of what she did, but she had absolutely no intention of making it _easy_ for him.

Her trade-mark pink hair had already made her an easy target for bullying by the other kids she’d met over the years, as the hair color was rare among citizens of Konoha, and rarer in Fire Country. It was rare even among her father’s clan, some of whom _did_ have pink hair, so she’d learned quickly how to _blend in_ , to be _inconspicuous_ despite her appearance.

It was how, even now while it was pouring, when there were very few children out and about, fewer still covered in mud like she was, and most importantly, with _pink_ hair, that the few looking around, didn’t even spare her a second glance.

Sakura could be proud of how well she’d learned to travel mostly unnoticed if she chose to, knowing not just all the little shortcuts and obscure hiding places that made it so easier to do so, and not just to escape her bullies and their _persistent_ badgering.

This _skill_ would come in handy, if she wanted to keep a low profile to the village ninja for just a little while longer, just until she had learned enough to leave her on, if not _equal_ footing with the clan children her age, at least with a chance to catch up to them before she became a genin. Then later, it would aid her well in any infiltrating she had to do as a shinobi.


	2. 1.2: *Forgotten Seals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still mostly editing grammar, and structure. A little bit of re-formatting points I was trying to put across originally.
> 
> 12/9: minor edits

The rain had yet to let up in Konoha by the next day.

Sakura had barely returned to the Orphanage by curfew, having missed lunch as well as dinner while she had been intensely studying her smuggled scrolls in one of the caverns beneath the Hokage Monument.

(While exploring them, she’d found that some of the caverns were stocked up with supplies for a village-wide evacuation not dissimilar to the one that had happened to the Kyūbi Attack, while some of the ones deeper into the mountain held shrines to various spirits and gods that the various clans had brought with them to the village, and there were others that were completely sealed away.)

Having studied the scroll discussing sealing, _intently_ , as she’d found it absolutely _fascinating_ , and an actual challenge unlike most material she could get her hands on, she had come to understand, even if she could not (yet) _break_ it, the seal on one of the oldest caverns.

She wanted to know what was in that cavern _badly_ , because the seal _appeared_ rather simple from what she understood so far, particularly compared to some of the other basic seals she’d managed to break then clumsily redo here. There were other caverns that she hadn’t broken the seals in, that she probably could if she tried, but _something_ about this seal – probably something to do with its age as it sat deep in the caverns, and the ink was just a touch faded like it had been there _decades_ , and she wanted to say it was almost as old as the _village_ was – drew her in.

Preparing for the Academy was more important than this one mystery though, so she couldn’t focus _only_ , or _exclusively_ on it, no matter how badly she wanted to devote her time until she figured it out.

Still, the mystery and the _need_ to _know_ had driven her straight back to this cavern, and ignore the rest of them for the time being.

Half the night had been spent with her trying to mentally de-construct it instead of sleeping because this was a problem that she could theoretically fix.

(Not that she would have slept well even without this puzzle, not when the Orphanage was so much louder than her home with her mother, with creaks and groans and sighs and the rustle of cloth as children tossed and turned in sleep. The puzzle at least gave her an excuse better than that she missed her mother.)

Even if she did not know _how_ to solve the puzzle of this seal _now_ , Sakura knew that she could still develop the seals that would allow her to develop the skill to face it and _try_ , or at least _tinker around with it without blowing herself up_.

(In the scroll, there had been many references to how a tampered-with seal by inexperienced or indelicate hands caused it to blow up in the face of whoever tried.)

One skill that would assist in the art of seals, was a more finely developed chakra system.

So, Sakura practiced.

Spreading her senses out, trying to detect what was around her beyond her sight as to heighten her awareness and let her chakra only delicately touch without disturbing anything. Concentrating chakra to specific points on her body, like her feet, in an even, constant flow. Tried wall-walking as she stretched her chakra just a _bit_ further, trying to use a little less each try for maximum use, until she’d reached the depths of her shallow reserves.

Her intent being that such repetitive actions would teach her body how to instinctively use the most efficient amount with a fine-tuned control and delicate touch for maximum use of her _small_ reserves, while also trying to expand them.

Her reserves being just barely above that of the average civilian, and thus only _barely_ separated her as a potential shinobi even at her age.

Hours she devoted to practicing these exercises until her chakra barely flickered to life on her skin.

Wall-walking had come naturally, but figuring out exactly how little chakra could be used and still do the job of holding herself up without slipping off, was harder. She felt like she was close, but she was _sure_ she could get the amount down further.

Laying there on the cool stone while she was forced to rest, she considered a skill that had followed on the heels of circulating chakra to a single point – learning how to circle it around to strengthen her body intentionally and not just instinctive.

(With her chakra reserves as small as they were, Sakura knew that she would be more of a _precision_ instrument than a blunt one, but she didn’t _want_ to just be that.

She held out hope that by puberty, like her mother had, that she’d develop a deeper well of chakra than most of her classmates, and thus the ability to spring back up again and again, but Sakura didn’t want to rely on that.

She would manage with what she had and do the same regardless, because she wanted to be a _shield_ , and to be able to _protect_ what she cared for no matter the opponent.)

It was the intentional part of that that would ensure she would never be a civilian.

Her mother had told her about how all things had chakra, even if it was just a little and directly tied to their life-force, but what separated a _civilian_ from a _shinobi_ even before training, was the _ability to use chakra_. That while all human bodies were fragile sacks of meat, what further separated shinobi from civilians, was that in learning to _use_ chakra, and developing chakra control like she had, was that an instinctive push of chakra could reinforce the body and make it capable of withstanding and giving damage that the civilian was just _incapable_ of.

(Without _extreme_ circumstances. They’d all heard of those cases, where a civilian, in a suicidal push, had done so. It was _rare_ though.

Most of those were still just those that had had the potential but for whatever reason, just circumstances or a lack of temperament to the life, hadn’t been trained.)

She’d already passed that point though.

And her mother had known it, hence why she’d explained that no matter _how_ angry she became, she _had_ to restrain herself.

As while she may _technically_ classify as a civilian in the eyes of the village, because of her age and without being born into a shinobi clan, the fact that she possessed the ability to use and manipulate chakra, even minutely, she could _seriously_ hurt a civilian; a civilian who could not shuffle chakra to the point(s) of impact.

There had been something _dark_ in her mother’s eyes as she’d explained that a shinobi child, even one who’d yet to learn _how_ to use the chakra they had, if they were assaulted by a full grown, but civilian, adult, would be the one charged with assault instead of allowing for self-defense.

(She’d suspected that her mother had been thinking of someone specific about such a situation, but she’d been tight-lipped with an angry look on her face when directly asked.)

She’d thought that her mother might have been warning _her_ , telling her that if for whatever reason, she was attacked by a civilian, she could do _nothing_ but _take_  the abuse.

(They’d both had a bit of a temper when crossed, and if pushed toward something she didn’t want to do, she’d known that she would lash out.

Her mother had known too.)

Only, after having been at the Oprhanage, even just for two weeks, she’d noticed how civilians – the _Village_ really – treated a blond younger boy, manhandling him in ways that she would have _long ago_ lashed out at.

(She’d seen the harsh grips, the pushes and shoves, the trips and kicks.

And that was just what she’d seen.)

She’d realized recently that her mother had been talking about _him_.

(That her mother had been, frankly, _pissed_ , because she’d realized that it wouldn’t even have to be self-defense before people tried to say the blond had assaulted them – and this had been years ago, when he’d barely been able to walk. His general _presence_ just seemed to offend people, let along being anywhere in their hearing range or sight.)

Now that her mother was gone, and she had no one to keep people from treating her like they did that boy – even if she suspected that he suffered a hate no one could come close to competing with – she realized how _important_ it was that she be able to control her chakra in such a simple, instinctive way.

(If they beat on _her_ , she wanted to be able to walk out of the assault on her own power if she couldn’t fight back. And that meant knowing how to toughen her body to take the damage.)

It was when her chakra ran down until it was far too low to use, something instinctive keeping her from pressing further without conscious concentrated effort, watching as it flickered out and refused to hold steady, that she let her mind drift actively back to the seal on the wall above her feet.

(It had each of the main components required of a complete seal: number-point base form, grounded to an element which started the chain of hand-signs often starting similarly as a ninjutsu of that element, and required to input the ‘key’ – which could be some sort of code like a phrase or word to fit in the provided center space, or an infusion of a keyed-in chakra.

 _This_ particular seal, had six-points, was grounded to fire, and required either blood or chakra from someone specific, or at least a blood relative, if the way a little of her chakra had given it a faint glow meant anything.)

She could admit that with only her rudimentary knowledge, and without a more extensive explanation of the components of a seal so that she could break it down further, and make an actual hypothesis for how to break it, she’d gone as far as she could so far.

Sakura could accept her limitations here, because it wasn’t forever, just for now.

And she was a master of letting a problem linger in the back of her mind, to work on whenever her mind was not explicitly focused on something else. It wouldn’t be more than a stab in the dark right now, but she _would_ figure it out, it just would take a bit of time while she properly _researched_.

A smirk twisted her lips up slightly as she let her mind drift to imagining what her next prank would be on that chuunin at the Archives; she wouldn’t pass the chance up to combine two goals when she slipped in to find more information on fuuinjutsu.


	3. 1.3: To See (a Hatchling)*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #Sakura meets Lee #A Wild Lee sighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’ve been always meaning to have Sakura meet Lee before the Chuunin Exams, because the potential is too much to not use. Some twenty plus chapters into posting the edited version, I realized the best place for Sakura to first see him – is here, in the beginning.  
> Also, I think it would be doubly amusing if the reason he basically spouted undying love on what amounted to a first meeting at the Exams, was because they’d crossed paths before.

Sakura had only missed the cut-off date by three months.

Sometimes she wondered who she could have been spending these last eight months with if she’d managed to make it in.

Sometimes she just wanted to see what was so different between her and them that three months mattered.

Most of the time, she ignored that feeling.

Before, her mother was there to remind her that three months might seem stupid, but that they’d picked a cut-off date so that she wasn’t unfairly at an advantage against the oldest of her age group by being the youngest. That too much of a gap between the weakest and the strongest before they learned control meant the risk of one of them hurting another _badly_ was too high.

Now, logically, she knew all that, but it was hard to ignore the feeling when a part of her felt left behind.

She’d stayed away because logically knowing one thing and seeing was another. If the gap was too wide to breach, she could have accepted it, but if the opposite was true, and she could _match_ the supposed ‘strongest’, then being ‘too young’ would be just plain unfair and make her think it was because she had no clan backing her.

Sakura had a little over two months until June and the next cut-off for the next year, when most of her age-group would be starting at the Academy as first-years.

The rains were petering off, but only those that had to be, and those that liked to push limits, were out in the damp and dreary. Of the latter, some of those were from her age-group.

She might have wanted to see what her age-group would have been, but she hadn’t meant to actually seek them out. It didn’t mean she was any hurry to leave once she saw one, lingering a moment on her way to the caverns.

He fascinated her – and confused her.

The boy with the _qui_ and some of the biggest, blockiest eyebrows she’d ever seen above round eyes, was in front of a training post, practicing hit after hit and kick after kick with his bare hands.

She watched as he repeated any action over and over until his hands bled, then he would continue on.

Sakura didn’t mean to linger as long as she did, but she couldn’t sense anything more than the faintest of chakra from him. By her own reckoning, he shouldn’t have the potential to be a shinobi, but he had the drive and the will if what she was seeing meant anything.

She could admire that.

That might have been why she came out of the overgrowth, pulled a roll of bandages of her pocket and tossed it at his head, “Hey, caterpillar brows! Wrap your hands if you’re going to practice like that!”

He blushed and barely caught it.

She didn’t stick around though to see the blush when there was an ominous crack and the rain went from a heavy drizzle to a drowning downpour and she ran for the cover of the caverns.


	4. 1.4: **We Meet Again (Tomcat)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 12/9: Edited

_April_

Roughly a week after the rains ended, she was hanging upside down from a tree on the outskirts of Konoha not far from the Hokage Monument, staying there by the chakra pumped through the soles of her feet, thinking over a particularly interesting passage from one of her newer stolen scrolls.

More specifically: _‘Every master of seals leaves the faintest signature in every single one of their works to reveal the origin of the seal-master. A Kiri nin will favor a simple four-point seal for speed considering the consistent bad weather of their home village, grounded in water. Opposed to how a Kumo nin would ground the same seal in lighting, and an Iwa nin will favor a sturdy six-point seal for stability reflecting the sturdiness of their home village, grounded in earth. Konoha favors five-point seals as a reflection of the influence Uzu has had since our founding, while typically grounded in earth or fire._

_An exception to this rule of this being the Uchiha clan seals, which favor six-points and are always grounded in fire.’_

If she was interrupting Lord Jiraiya’s words correctly, it would imply that the seal she as so fascinated with, was an Uchiha seal, if it originated from Konoha at all.

Which added a whole new layer of intriguing; and caution that the seal would need to be handled with.

Either way though, she would have to tread lightly because the Uchiha were _notorious_ for being very secretive about their family seals for the few of them that even left their compound, and _those_ seals were just as notoriously known for being _vicious_ when tripped.

She’d heard from her mother that a run-of-a-mill seal was fairly standard, with its activation being that if you survived tripping one, you’ve survived them all, but any customized seal tended to vary wildly on strength. She had used the example of an explosive tag’s seal, which had built-in restrictions that were the standard – unless they were made instead of bought – but a custom-made tag could have even more restrictions to make it basically harmless – like the ones pre-genin learned with so they didn’t accidentally blow themselves up – or remove them completely to the point that the _one_ tag was just as powerful as _three_ standard tags.

She’d said that while the Hyuuga clan seals tended along the line of custom explosive seals, they were still half the viciousness of a completely unrestricted – or an Uchiha clan seal. She had gone on to remark that it was those strong and outright vicious clan seals protecting the boundaries of the Uchiha compound that had kept the damage to the compound minimal despite being the closest to the worst of the destruction of the Kyūbi Attack.

Sakura stilled in her renewed perusal of the scroll – looking specifically for any further mention of the Uchiha clan seals through she doubted there would be _anything_ – as her instincts pinged faintly at another’s presence nearby.

Realizing that she’d been absent-mindedly been rubbing at her temple again because of the faint headache she’d had for at least a week, but closer to two.

(It had previously just barely been noticeable so she was mostly sure it’d been two weeks, but since she’d been stretching the edges of her senses, it had gone to a light throb that spiked whenever someone had gotten within her range. It was easy to ignore still, as long as she kept away from people.)

Lifting her eyes just above her scroll, squinting slightly as the light was a bit too bright to be comfortable, Sakura tested out how much she’d improved her ability to sense chakra while she also visually looked for anyone in the nearby vicinity.

Making this her first _real_ test of her sensing ability outside of controlled situations, and intentionally – as she’d found that she knew when someone was within ten paces of whether she’d tried or not the last couple of weeks. Sakura didn’t have high hopes she’d find the interloper before they found her, because considering her location, it would only be a ninja and she didn’t expect to be able to see _or_ sense a trained shinobi yet if they had even the _slightest_ intention of hiding.

Still, this was home and they could slip up not trying to hide.

Hence why she was looking around with a quick flicker of her eyes from side to side on that off-chance.

It still left her surprised when her small, outward expanded wave of chakra tagged a living creature large enough to be human.

(Her instincts made her think there were _two_ beings there though.)

Slowly crouching tightly on her branch as she turned to the interloper, Sakura saw a flash of red and white fan on a dark blue back – announcing that this was a member of the Uchiha.

A first, second, and third glance from this angle gave nothing away for gender, just as her stalker from the Archives.

Who she was less than eager to come across again, so she quickly rolled up her scroll and slipped it into the pouch at her back she’d pinched from the chuunin at the Archives.

Sakura smothered her chakra seconds before a wave of chakra could bounce off her own in a move the mirror of the one she’d done, shuddering slightly at the taste of ash that sat heavy in her mouth as it passed her.

Then before it must have processed for them, she slipped off the side of the branch and fell into a roll to absorb her momentum from the four-meter drop, and if her feet still stung a bit from the impact, she didn’t let the small pain distract her as she sprinted away.

Dragging her fingertips against the bark of trees she’d passed, Sakura let loose a bit of a smirk, knowing that she’d left traps she’d been playing around with earlier here – and now they would go off if sprung.


	5. 1.5: Shisui Interlude I*

The Uchiha _had_ vaguely recognized the chakra signature in this area of the forest he’d come with his cousin, intending to goad him to a game of blitz-tag with the promise of buying him dango afterwards, but just in that vague sense most Konoha villagers registered to Konoha shinobi they didn’t know personally. Considering this was off the beaten path just beyond the walls that civilians traveled sometimes for various plants, he assumed it was just a comrade out enjoying nature on a break during the constant string of missions that they’d lived in since the Kyūbi Attack.

It was only recently, nearly six years later, that anyone chuunin or higher wasn’t constantly going out of the village on missions in a show of strength as most of their usual clients were reassured that losing easily a third – and a good deal more, considering how many had been forced off active duty from injuries – of their shinobi population in one night hadn’t left them incapable or weak. It was only now that just relaxing in the forest for the sake of relaxing was really possible again.

So, Shisui had intended to just let his comrade know he was there then letting them be to enjoy the day, but he’d been curious.

Which while a common shinobi trait, was also one that had landed him in hot water more than once – once, literally – but he’d been curious to know why if this _was_ a comrade, they’d smothered their chakra so low here just outside the Wall, or if the size was correct and unaltered, if this was maybe a civilian child lost or a larger animal like one of Nara deer, but just in an unusual place for them.

Unusual, but not unheard of. Shisui still hadn’t forgotten the one buck that had chased down any man it had seen last year, thinking they were competition for his does. Even using shunshin, the antlers had come far too close to his family jewels for comfort before he’d escaped and found a Nara woman to herd it.

His curiosity peaked when the chakra suddenly shrunk to something almost non-existent – making it now definitely a comrade, probably one that didn’t want to be disturbed, unless Nara deer had suddenly become ten times more dangerous and _that_ was a bit frightening.

The situation was familiar though, and it made Shisui think of the pink-haired child he’d glimpsed two weeks ago after their prank on a chuunin in the Archives.

It made him move forward quickly, to try and catch them. If only to prove to himself that he still had the skills – and that his cousin, was again, just an anomaly in children being unusually skilled and not some sort of freaky new norm.

A little bit was also because it was really bugging him that he wanted to say the kid was a girl, but considering he’d thought Itachi was one for the longest time with his pretty eyes and looking so much like Mikoto, he’d learned not to assume. And took in Itachi had looked down at him from he’d been sprawled on the ground after being knocked down by a different cousin by assuming _they_ were male when they were female, and commented in that way of his that it was one of the Uchiha’s greatest tricks that they were all generally attractive and androgynous, and so gave them an edge.

Only to run right into a small hidden pit of gooey mud.

Quickly side-stepping as he started to sink into his ankles, Shisui had realized too late that in doing so, he’d snapped a tripwire, and had been twisting out of the way of a barrage of whipcord-thin tree branches snapping back out of the way when one caught him across his back from his blind-spot. He’d half-fallen forward with the force, having only a moment to wonder if he’d stumbled across one of his cousin’s traps before he’d thrown himself forward seconds before a net full of rocks would have fallen on top of him because that _was_ something Itachi would do.

It was only when no kunai came flying out of the leaves, just Itachi himself, that he realized it wasn’t one of his cousin’s.

He didn’t relax his guard though, because Itachi loved to make traps within traps and the moment you thought you’d escaped, was often the moment the trap stepped up its game and you were done for.

Itachi simply stood in front of the mud pit he’d nearly bathed in, having arrived only a half-beat behind him with his lesser but still impressive speed, so he’d seen what had happened. He looked between the various components of the trap, his bland facial expression flickering for a glimpse of _curiosity_ that sent a shiver down his spine.

It never boded well when Itachi got _curious_ and took initiative to _figure out_ something – or someone.

“It appears that a set of children’s traps would almost do you in, Shisui, if they’d armed this properly.”

Shisui froze for a second as he nearly stared wide-eyed at his cousin for the almost-undercurrent of _indignant_ in his voice, that he only barely caught by virtue of how well he knew the other.

There was a faint narrow-eyed gleam in Itachi’s eyes as he continued to study the trap for a moment, and Shisui couldn’t stop the full-body shiver it gave him, because Itachi now looked mildly _affronted_ that he’d fallen prey to such a trap. One that he seemed to consider _leagues_ below the ones he’d made and that he’d been throwing Shisui in nearly since the day he could make one.

Shisui realized that he might have set himself up to be the next victim of his cousin’s traps, just so his cousin could prove that _he_ had _superior_ traps than a _civilian child_.

He sputtered indignantly at the accusation, and the implied, _almost_ put-upon, _I-guess-I’m-going-to-have-to-improve-your-awareness-and-reaction-time-to-traps._

Shisui felt a little bad that he was throwing the kid to the verifiable wolves, because Itachi was barely hiding his _curiosity_ towards them and if he’d been any less composed, everyone would be able to see how he wanted to test the kid – and he thought, maybe find someone who could keep up with him because few could, and Shisui _tried_ but his cousin was on a whole different level than most – but he couldn’t let it stand that he’d been almost bested by just _any_ child.

“They pranked the chuunin in charge of the Archives two weeks ago when I was in the area, then lost me in the streets a bit later. I felt their chakra just a moment ago, so I thought I would catch them and find out her _name_.”

Shisui paused for a second, debating for a moment if he _should_ bring Itachi in on finding out more about the kid, because he didn’t _really_ need to enable Itachi’s curiosity here, but he hadn’t had much luck just crossing paths with them the last two weeks when he was out of village almost more than he was in it recently.

“I had thought they’d had _potential_ then, but this makes it _twice_ now that I’ve underestimated them.”

A simple raise of an eyebrow was all he got from his cousin, with a, “Hn”; at once asking for more information, and sighing in disappointment.


	6. 1.6: *Recon (from a Weasel)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 12/9: Minor edits

Sakura was perched on a tree limp on the outskirts of the market, high above the heads of anyone there, when she spotted an Uchiha not much older than her, but not quite as old as her stalker.

They – and Sakura had a much better view of them then she’d had of her stalker so far, but every Uchiha she’d seen had that same dash of pretty and stunningly handsome, and was really giving credit to whole gender obscurity of the Uchiha being one of the accepted unsolved mysteries of Konoha – were alone.

They were also reading a small scrap of paper _intently_.

Short of searching out her stalker – which was a last resort plan – or getting into the well-guarded personal files in the Hokage Tower – which would be pointless without a name as there were a _lot_ of Uchiha, not to mention impossible at her current skill level without being caught in two seconds flat – she needed information on her stalker.

She was operating at a heavy disadvantage without information, and Sakura knew her luck would run out eventually on evading them if they got serious. But if she wanted to keep evading them until she was ready to put herself forth for the Academy, she needed to at least know their _name_ so that she could find out more about them.

The only reason she thought she might have luck finding out a name was because their curly hair did not seem to be a common trait for Uchiha, and that her stalker was the only one she’d seen with it.

To get that name, it required Sakura to take a calculated risk of revealing herself to the attention of another Uchiha.

Slowly standing up from her perch, she wobbly walked down the tree, as while she’d mastered _sticking_ to the tree, going up and down was another level of difficult that while she _could_ do, there was still the instinctive fear of falling she hadn’t broken.

Sakura felt a sense of accomplishment though, for even being able to do _that_ much, having seen that most shinobi didn’t learn until they were training under a jounin sensei as a genin.

Then she ran toward her mark, ducking and weaving through the crowd with soft giggles as if playing a game of tag with friends.

At the last possible second, as if she hadn’t seen them, Sakura moved directly into the path of the Uchiha.

They caught her shoulders before she could actually impact with them – and perhaps answer the question of gender for _one_ Uchiha – and she smiled guilelessly up at him, making sure to show off the tooth she’d lost a few days before to emphasize her young age and further playing up that this much all just be an _accident_.

“Thanks, Uchiha-san!”

Sakura _really_ wanted to try her hand at pick-pocketing them, because she was curious about the paper they’d been reading and they’d slipped it into a pocket seconds ago at the almost-collision. That would give away her play though, because she doubted she could pull that over them when already the sole focus of their attention, so she resisted.

She squinted at him, as if trying to figure something out, letting the fact that the Uchiha had not looked away in the slightest, dark eyes studying her intently, which was actually a bit unnerving but a civilian kid might not notice which meant Sakura had to ignore it.

“Uchiha-san, do you have a cousin with short, curly hair maybe a few years older than you?”

They nodded shallowly, and Sakura forced herself to not fidget beneath their intense gaze when they’d been watching her since they’d seen her _pink hair_ and hoped she’d made the right decision to not abort when they’d started paying her attention in the midst of a crowd.

She’d committed though, and it might have given her game away to leave after having gained their attention, so she hoped the information was worth it.

They’d seen the collision coming after all, and the ball was in their court about whether they played along or called her on it.

She leaned forward conspiringly, “Nee-chan thinks they’re cute, but she’s too shy to introduce herself. I can’t tease her without a name, so what’s their name?”.

They tilted their head just slightly, and Sakura couldn’t help but picture a curious small animal – but she wasn’t fool enough to think it was anything but a bred and true predator’s gaze watching her, blinking slowly as he put subtle emphasis on a gender for her stalker.

“ _His_ name’s Shisui. What is her name?”

Sakura had figured they would play along, because they gave off the feeling of a cat playing with a mouse, so she didn’t hesitate to lie.

“Takeno Ume.”

They didn’t look fooled in the slightest, but didn’t call her on it so Sakura made a quick exit, acting as if she saw somebody behind them that she knew, giving a wide smile, bowed at them slightly as was polite, then ran off into the crowd.

Her smile was real as she yelled back at him, “Thank you Uchiha-san!”.

She didn’t need to look back to know he watched her disappear into the market crowd.

(Itachi watched her go, seeing what had grabbed his cousin’s attention about her.

If he hadn’t been trained professionally, her con might have worked. The fact she’d managed to lie to his face with enough believability most civilians would have thought her words were truth was mildly impressive.

He thought she might have a future in intelligence-gathering, because she’d shown more intelligence in gathering intel on potential allies or combatants than most of his age-mates currently graduating the Academy would do on their own.)


	7. 1.7: **(A Boar) Amongst Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha! I didn't forget about this - but between school and work, the days started to blur together and I might have forgot if I'd updated that week or the week before? I've been working on everything though, so ya'll get multiple chapters today!
> 
> 12/9: Edits

Sakura was sitting in the budding flowers on the edge of the park, one of her newest nabbed scrolls – this one having a diagram of the human body and its chakra system, as drawn by a Hyuuga – opened in front of her to study.

It had been a week since her second run-in with her stalker, and she would like to think it was because she was keeping a low profile but she had a feeling that was more due to him being out of the village on missions. Still, she made sure to keep quiet and randomized the times she pranked Midorikawa at the Archives throughout the day to anytime but after curfew and not every day, so that unless he laid in wait there all day every day, the chances of him finding her were smaller.

Memorizing the diagram didn’t take long, so Sakura moved on to practice bettering her chakra control by manipulating it in continuous waves to the edges a meter away, stiffening the grass in various spots without giving up the game of hiding it by keeping it in the pattern of a very gentle breeze.

She’d read in one of her stolen advanced scrolls, a B-rank on the nature of chakra, about how, with a finely-tuned awareness of the chakra in all things, it would be possible to not just pull on the chakra found in nature, but to manipulate it as an extension of herself if applied with a good amount of control.

So far, Sakura had figured out how to focus her chakra to a point and slice a leaf in half in her hands by visualizing it – without stumbling across how to change the elemental nature of the chakra unfortunately. Shredding the leaf was harder, looking haphazard without any sort of precision to the random cuts, but she wanted that precision.

Precision was the difference between lots of pain but no real damage, lots of damage but nothing lethal, or lethal.

There was how she could practice by aiming for the veins of the leaves, but that was only a two-dimensional cut. For real precision, she would need to work out depth, on something like a tree trunk. Not yet though, that would come later, right now she was satisfied practicing the simplest of cuts – right down the middle, length-wise.

Once she had the cut down though, Sakura went back to practicing making the grass wave while meditating, finding that while she did meditate, she could spread her senses a lot further than before through the earth itself, or if near a body of water, the water itself, for points of contact and slight disruptions by movement to identify living beings.

(There had been one particular line about how this idea was just the first step of one way of gaining natural chakra, but she hesitated to go further after the repeated warnings that the route she’d gone would be particularly dangerous.

Physical mutations were the _least_ of the consequences.)

Sakura found it very entertaining to play around with manipulating her chakra to sharpen some of the blades of grass into little knives, creating shapes and characters and zigzagging paths within the game. Trying to extend that sort of fine control to make the grass bend without sharpening, to instead become tripping hazards but she wasn’t having much luck yet.

Or at least she couldn’t easily discern her bent and sharpened grass without admitting that she may have made what could classify as a C-rank technique. While it would make a great last-ditch defense effort, and a distraction technique for a heavier hitter, Sakura thought it best to not draw attention to it.

What she really wanted though, was to lengthen the grass, to encourage growth and use the grass as bindings, wrapping up and around legs and feet, but that required some skill in an elemental nature called mōkouton. That was outside her skill level right now though – even if she had a theory about how to, she didn’t dare try that yet when every Konoha child knew the horror stories about anyone who had tried to recreate the Shodaime’s legendary techniques.

Her good mood soured as she was noticed by some of the boys a year older than her that came here to rough-house, and they started calling out taunts about her appearance.

Her head bowed some to let her petal pink hair hide her expression and how she grit her teeth, and they just called out that she should keep doing that to hide her obscenely large forehead.

(Something dark in her wanted to bare her teeth at the assumption they’d made that she would be an _easy_ target because she was a girl, young, and had pink hair. That they could make her _cry_ from a couple of childish taunts.

She _wanted_ to peer out through her hair with a wide, sharp smile and remind them that the deadliest things came in pretty packaging.

But she couldn’t – the taunts themselves weren’t worth extra attention no matter how _satisfying_ it would be in the moment.)

There was a low-simmering anger in her as they just _kept_ calling her names, but she was used to ignoring it, ignoring _them_ , because with having pink hair the taunts came with the territory. To civilians, her hair and her gender were more than enough for them to assume that she _couldn’t_ be _strong, powerful, opinionated_ , and that she would only _just_ be a pretty wallflower to hang off her husband’s arm as just another ornament to his status.

(It didn’t mean that it didn’t sting like tears in an open wound about the assumption, it just meant that when she _did_ bare her teeth in that smile, that she would so _enjoy_ making them _reek_ with fear and cower beneath her wrath, and that she _couldn’t wait_ to remind them to never judge a person by their appearance.)

As for the taunts themselves, she was only vaguely annoyed about them. They were petty and over-done, weak, barely worth the air they were spoke with. Like she _hadn’t_ heard a thousand times that her hair looked like a bad dye-job for Uzumaki red, or that her forehead was big enough to write signs on.

They _weren’t_ worth the energy to get upset over, not until one boy dared to try some new material and said that she must be as ugly as her mother.

The flash of anger _that_ caused broke her control, and her chakra rippled out and stiffened the grass ringing her, making them as sharp as knives and spotted with singe-marks.

No one had a chance to notice what she had done when a blonde girl smacked him across the face.

It was this girl’s interference, this new turn of events as the girl, who had often played at this park as well, and while she had not actively joined in on the taunting had also never done anything to stop it before, _acted_ now, that shattered her control. That made the grass bend and crush beneath the other girl’s feet instead of pierce.

(Later, she would berate herself for such simple things breaking her control, when she wanted her control to be absolute and never falter but by her own will. Now, she was just happy that it had happened and stopped her from impaling the girl’s feet with _grass_.

Later, she would admit when she replicated this moment that she’d actually made something that would be a B-rank once she worked out how to expand her chakra up and out of the blades of grass to be actual chakra blades. Now, she would just take more care to not practice this in a public place.)

He yelped as the blonde pushed him down, “Stop taunting Sakura-chan!”

Then the other girl turned around and held out a hand with a smile, making extended eye contact.

(Sakura refused to admit that any stutter was the result of how _pretty_ the other girl was up close, and instead was because she was trying to play into the role expected of her as a civilian faced with a clan kid, particularly one so easily identified by the blonde hair and pupil-less blue eyes.)

“H-hai, Yamanaka-san.”

She took the hand with a timid smile even as she put the scroll away before the other girl could get a good look at it.

Her eyes glanced at the boy who just seemed more stunned that a _girl_ had pushed him down then anything, but she couldn’t help but wonder if _this_ girl had ever gotten a warning about fighting with civilians because she _hadn’t_ hesitated to shove the boy back.

(All she could think about was how if she’d tried the exact same trick, that she’d be expecting a visit from the Military Police in the coming hours when the boy’s mother complained about the bruises, and that she didn’t think the other girl had to worry about that.)

The blonde’s smile went soft, reassuringly as she helped her stand up from where she’d been sitting in the grass.

She frowned softly as she eyed Sakura’s pink locks intently, then she smiled as she removed one of the blue barrettes holding back her own bangs, looking rather mischievous as she used it to push back the bangs on the right side of Sakura's face and pin them out of the way.

“The best way to get back at bullies is to show them you’re not afraid. Show them your pretty face proudly – they’re just jealous.”

Sakura smiled at the girl, truly and genuinely because while a part of her absorbed what the other girl had said, all she’d heard was _I think you’re pretty_. Then she giggled softly instead of letting loose a barking laugh at being called _pretty_ by this _beautiful_ girl, and let herself be dragged off further into the flowers here.

(She hoped that they could be friends, but she had no illusions.

The other girl was a Yamanaka, and she was just a civilian, an outsider to somebody who already had the close-knit bonds of the Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi alliance. She would be just a passing amusement for the day to the other girl, but she knew herself – she would be treasuring this barrette for much longer and thinking of _what-could-have-been_.) 


	8. 1.8: Ino Interlude I*

It was late when Ino left the park, after Sakura-chan had to leave when the light had begun to fade.

She was practically skipping on her way home, she was so happy.

Even the fact that her older cousin, the oldest child of her father’s younger brother, who she knew her father had set to watch her when he was in-village since Kumo had breached the village three weeks ago, had come to her side instead of watching from a distance, didn’t ruin her mood.

Takayuki wasn’t her favorite cousin, too serious and dour and she’d never heard him laugh, for her to like him, but he’d always been around and she was used to him. It didn’t mean she’d spent much time with him without her father there, _trying_ to get her to make nice with him because he was next in line to be clan head after her and it wouldn’t do if they couldn’t stand each other.

He spoke after a moment of walking alongside her.

“Ino, you know I’m going to have to tell your father you pushed that civilian boy so he isn’t caught by surprise if one of the Military Police visits him about it. He has warned you that you have to be careful around civilians because village law is in favor of them for their protection.”

She puffed out her cheeks, then turned her head away from him with a flick of her hair, “Go ahead! The boy started it.”

He sighed softly. Then he gently caught her shoulder so she would stop and face him instead of ignoring him as she clearly was intending.

“How? _You_ were the one to approach him. _You_ were the one to start the altercation.”

Ino glared at him, then shoved one finger into his stomach because she couldn’t reach his chest properly even when she strained to stand on her tip-toes and the stomach was easier to reach and less humiliating then when she tried to reach his chest and failed.

“While _you_ just watched him insult Sakura-chan!”

He blinked slowly, “And? She is just a civilian girl, and they were just insults. It is not my place to step in when she seemed to have it in hand.”

Ino threw up her hands, and stomped forward a few steps before he caught up to her.

“Ugh! She’s not though. Her mother was a shinobi, and she nearly hurt them for calling her mother _ugly_.”

Takayuki faltered for a mere second, barely breaking his stride.

“Ino. She _said_ nothing about that.”

She didn’t look at him, knowing he was asking her if she’d used a clan technique on another villager and didn’t dare say it out loud in case someone else heard. Either way, it would be handled _internally_ , but if anyone else found out that a Yamanaka could lightly skim another’s thoughts with a single hand-sign, it would become a _problem_. Ino didn’t know any of the details, but she’d noticed that the Uchiha had been treated differently since the Kyūbi Attack, and it had been impressed upon her that some techniques were to never leave the knowledge of the clan, not ever known as a ‘Secret Technique’ or a ‘Clan Technique’ because it could lead to a similar situation for the Yamanaka.

“She did, not today though. That’s not the important part right now. Sakura-chan wants to be a shinobi like her mother, and _knows_ not to strike out at them no matter what, but her mom died three weeks ago and they insulted her. She would have _hurt_ them without intending to because of it.”

Ino thought of how she’d noticed the other girl before, having admired the cherry blossom petal-pink of her hair from afar just as much as she’d admired the other girl’s attitude despite the insults thrown her way for her looks. She’d never thought the other girl would really appreciate her stepping in, but she’d paid attention even as she played amongst the flowers.

It had been how she’d been near and able to react after the boy had gone too far and insulted Sakura-chan’s mother.

Then she’d noticed Sakura-chan’s reading material, even if the other girl had quickly hidden it, and been _intrigued._ It hadn’t been something a civilian would choose to read unless they had an interest in becoming a shinobi. That combined with the faintest whisper of her chakra lingering in the grass around her feet, suggesting she’d been doing some sort of basic chakra control exercise, had peaked her interest further and she _might_ have skimmed at Sakura-chan’s thoughts.

Sakura-chan had been working on a jutsu of her own that would be a C- or B-ranked when she finished it, and she wasn’t even a genin yet. Pretty and intelligent, with a promise to be _deadly_ spoke deeply to a Yamanaka. The Uchiha weren’t the only ones who had a _thing_ for deadly pretty people, most shinobi did, even if the Uchiha took it to the extremes. The Yamanaka _preferred_ intelligent partners, and Ino saw Sakura-chan and _knew_ she was a catch any shinobi clan would want.

It had motivated her to give one of her barrettes to Sakura-chan right then and there.

Takayuki sighed, “So, you sought to protect her by doing so instead? And thought to excuse it by announcing your intent to court the girl?”

Ino puffed out her cheeks in indignation, then whirled on her heel to grab at the front of her cousin’s shirt and haul him down to her level.

“Sakura-chan is _smart,_ and pretty, and she _will_ be very _dangerous_. I thought she was before but now I know for _sure_. I want to get to know her better, and that barrette is a promise so the other clans can’t steal her away before I have a chance with her.”

His eyes were wide as he met her gaze.

He seemed to realize that she’d fallen like her father had for her mother, and that as far as she was concerned, she had found her future wife.


	9. To Talk with a Fox

Sakura was watching the younger blonde boy from the Orphanage, intrigued by how he instinctively smothered his chakra to the point that it was nearly gone, roughly to the amount of a fox, before he snuck into the Hokage Tower, probably with the intent of trying to prank the older man.

(Some part of her was _horrified_ that he would _try_ , but another part of her had a razor-sharp smile and wanted to see how far he could go before he was stopped.)

She had followed him to the building next to the Tower originally, watching from there as he snickered then made a flying leap from another building – feeling her heart leap into her throat with the sight – before catching his fingertips on the window-sill. Once he’d scrambled inside, she’d taken a moment to repeat his move with her heartbeat loud in her ears, but she wouldn’t let herself be stopped by the civilian fear of _falling_ , and flung herself at the side of the building, sliding down a ways while she’d been stunned after getting the air knocked out of her.

Her body had been shaking as she’d clung to the wall for a long moment, using every bit of her control to plaster herself there, before she’d begun scaling the wall, unable to help the urge to roll her eyes at how she could hear him snicker again – and give himself away to the ANBU in the room.

(She couldn’t sense them _par say_ , but she knew they would be there, even if something was telling her that there were _two_ in the room.)

She couldn’t decide if she wanted to admire his skills in getting there because that hadn’t been chakra control keeping him attached to the window-sill, but sheer muscle strength and will, or whether to face-palm in sheer exasperation at _giving himself away_.

She resisted the urge for the latter as she brushed her chakra against the seal on the window – and flinching slightly at how He had essentially torn right past it, mangling it with his chakra – delicately nullifying what remained while also doing her best to reassemble it so that it didn’t backfire spectacularly for the next shinobi to go this route, before walking up the last little bit of the wall and crouched on the inside of the ledge of the window. Lifting a hand to wave slightly at him, she mimicked a familiar shinobi, with an upside-down u-eye-smile, “Yo,”.

Seeing the boy’s startle was _amusing_ , but not the point of why she’d decided to come in instead of just continuing to observe him from afar, “You might want to hurry up with whatever prank you’re doing. Hokage-sama is on his way back here, and he’s not alone.”.

His eyes narrowed slightly in concentration, clearly trying to sense such a thing, before his ears caught what his sensing couldn’t, eyes widening. He gave her a large grin, “You could sense them? That’s so _cool!_ ”, before eyeing her suspiciously even as he finished his prank, making sure to edge away from her slightly out of caution, “Why are _you_ here?”.

Sakura didn’t even think of saying aloud that she’d come with half the intention of trying to steal the file Sandaime had on ‘Uchiha Shisui’, knowing that it would draw _far_ too much attention from the ANBU than she wanted, ever. It was bad enough that she’d revealed that she’d sensed Sandaime from here, but that was a small sacrifice in the long run.

(She wasn’t stupid enough, or brazen enough, to say that she’d been watching for weeks, and knew this was her best non-orchestrated opportunity to get close to him.)

The fact that he was asking her, when she had half-expected him to just rush out – which would have been the _wise_ thing, but she hadn’t _really_ expected as much – or otherwise ignore her, pleased her, as it meant he wasn’t without some shinobi instincts of his own, or _completely_ obstinate.

(She couldn’t even chalk up how he _hadn’t_ run off due to him being suspicious of her warning like a proper shinobi though, there was still a bit of an urge to bang her head against the wall at his trusting nature. Even if it would benefit her.)

It was the _way_ he was asking her though, how wary and tense he was as he did so – suspicious of her motives of being there in the first place, even if he wasn’t of her words – that confirmed her suspicions that the bad-mouthing she’d heard in these last several weeks, wasn’t the end of the mistreatment he’d suffered.

(Her mother had been _angry_ at the idea.

She was finding that she was edging toward _furious_ , because in her stalking, he’d been nothing but sunshine and smiles and laughter and pranks, and it made something dark uncoil in her that people could hate and hurt that.)

She held out a hand as she re-opened the window behind her, “I thought we could help each other, Uzumaki-san,”.

His moment of indecision was interrupted by the sound of voices in the hall, and he rushed forward, grabbing her hand as she stepped out the window.

(They didn’t know it, but the ANBU in the room reported to Sandaime after they left that the two had been in there, making the older man smile softly as he realized that while both had the potential to be ninja, he was more pleased that someone had reached out to the boy of their own will.)

While Sakura could keep her footing on the Tower wall below the window, He didn’t have that skill and thus half-clung half-hung off the window-sill. She didn’t let go of his hand as they listened to the door open inside the room, “Uzumaki-san, would you climb onto my back so I can walk us down?”.

He shook his head, voice caught in his throat in his fear of letting go and falling so far down – something she didn’t _understand_ because she’d _just seen him fling himself quite the distance from a rooftop to this window_ – and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance at his refusal, but she still didn’t let go of his hand, “Uzumaki-san, either you climb onto my back or I open the window up for you to climb back inside to the Sandaime. The choice is yours, but we can’t say here much longer.”.

(Not the least because even if by some miracle, Sandaime didn’t already know they were there, it would only be a matter of time before he figured out or one of the ANBU told him. She would bet on him knowing already, and took his lack of inference in her course of action as approval to continue.)

Biting his lip, he made his choice.

Twisting around as much as he could while clinging by his fingertips, he slung one leg around the far side of her waist and clutched his arms around her shoulders, laugh a little strained as he was looking directly down, “Downward!”. She kept gripping his hand, using his trust in her to ignore her doubt of if she could get them both down without falling, face scrunching up in concentration as she focused on taking one step, then another, and another, down the Tower wall.

Their knuckles were white as both forced themselves to remain calm, instinctively understanding that if either of them panicked the other, or both of them did, they would fall.

He proceeded to distract himself by trying to find out more about her, “You’re Sakura-chan, right? I’ve seen you around the Orphanage.”.

Sakura made an agreeing noise, legs shaking slightly as while she was getting comfortable walking up walls with chakra, it was considerably more difficult while pushing chakra through her feet in appropriate amounts to compensate for the unbalanced amount of weight, and she only had so much chakra, “What did you want me for?”.

She took a second to answer as while they were so close, she could sense clearly his (over-)abundance of chakra – and not just as a vague ball of sunshine always at the edge of her senses – and had been absently contemplating if it was possible to siphon chakra off those with larger reserves in the back of her mind, “There was a prank I wanted to do, but I wasn’t sure how to carry it out alone. I’ve seen your handiwork, and figured you would, at least, have some ideas. I also have a larger prank I want to carry out, but that requires not only more chakra than I have, but at least two people to pull off successfully.”.

(The idea of siphoning chakra off others was appealing, particularly if she could leach an unnoticeable amount of those around, whenever it was possible, so that she would have some, at all times.

It would be worth investigating further, if it was even _possible_ , particularly as she suspected for all the effort she could put forth by the time she became a genin, her reserves would just never be all that large – not unless she was truly her mother’s daughter – particularly in comparison to whoever her teammates were unless they were born civilian.

She had the sense though, that if it _was_ possible, it would be a series of seals – and that it had a high probability of ending up as a forbidden jutsu. Particularly as she could _easily_ see how _simple_ it would be to take that jutsu and turn it offensive, twist it until it siphoned it _all_ and drained a person to death.

While she figured out if she could, and then _how_ , to siphon off chakra, she would simply be forced to settle for growing her meager reserves as large as she could, and learn how to use the barest amount necessary for everything so that nothing was wasted. As every skill that she learned to stretch her chakra just a little farther would be absolutely vital when her classmates would mostly be clan children, each succeeding generation enabling larger chakra reserves from the get-go, and some of them would be like him, who was naturally gifted with a ridiculously large abundance of chakra.

While there would be a few civilian children like herself at the Academy, whose parents would pay for their entrance into the Academy, most of them would do terribly and barely pass, if they even passed, or would always be just mediocre, because of their small reserves. And she _would not be mediocre_.)

He snickered, “What prank? On who?”, enjoying playing pranks for the attention, and though he couldn’t see it, she smirked slightly as she knew she had just gained an ally, “To re-arrange everything opposite in her home, with little ‘gifts’ left behind, and a _few_ of their things re-distributed across the village. The target is a particular chuunin from the Archives, Midorikawa.”.

Her eyes were hard as she explained her reason _why Midorikawa_ , “My mother thought they were a friend, but she apparently noticed nothing about a co-worker as despite me being there _many_ times, she couldn’t recognize me a couple of weeks ago. Had the gall to tell me to run back to my mother, despite _knowing_ that she had died protecting the Archives just barely two weeks before. Then had the _audacity_ to do a less than acceptable, let alone _spectacular_ , job organizing the Archives, because the place is a mess, which is a _direct_ insult to my mother who took such pride in her job at the Archives, and it took a week for them to screw that up.”.

Even if he couldn’t see her face, He knew that kind of anger; it was an anger that couldn’t and wouldn’t be sated until the conclusions she wanted was achieved. Occasionally, he wanted that kind of anger himself for the way he was treated by most of the village, but he just couldn’t sustain it. It didn’t mean he didn’t understand it.

His lips thinned as he thought of telling her that kind of anger led nowhere, but he suspected she already knew that, “I don’t want her dead, just out of the Archives. I just want to make her life difficult until she gets the hint. “.

He knew she could be lying, just to get him to help her, but there was _something_ in her voice, _something_ that spoke of her attempt to honor her mother’s memory, but not to avenge it.  He imagined that if he knew who his parents had been, that he would try to do similar, but the most he _could_ do, was simply live his life and hope that he did whoever they had been, proud, “Alright. I’ll help.”.

He smiled into her shoulder, “Believe it!”, intuitively understanding that no matter the reason she had sprouted, that she had chosen to ask for _his_ help because she was lonely just like he was and wanted a friend too.


	10. Foxes and Tomcats

After their ‘escape’ from the Hokage Tower, the two stuck together.

Because to Sakura, he was an ally; Because to Naruto, she didn’t hate him. To others, it made no sense why they even knew each other, as other than their tenuous connection through the Orphanage as they’d hardly crossed paths more than a handful of times in the weeks she’d been there, they had appeared to not even know the other existed. To each other though, they were someone precious, someone who pushed the loneliness away.

Sakura was perched currently perched on a tree branch high above the door to the Archives, waiting for the squirrel chatter that was Naruto’s sign that their target was out of the building.

(Thanks to Naruto’s presence, and his unorthodox pranks in addition to her own, the number of pranks and general mayhem that had been introduced into the target’s life had nearly tripled, and they had begun to jump at the smallest noises, a twitch developing in their left eye. It was simply _marvelous_ to Sakura to see the chuunin quite literally on the edge of a breakdown.

Though depending on her reaction to the next prank, Sakura would adjust either way their future pranks so that the chuunin didn’t _completely_ snap, but just had a bit of a breakdown.

After all, her purpose with the pranks was simply to make the chuunin leave the Archives – either by resignation or reassignment – not break her for good; it wouldn’t be good if she had to visit Torture and Interrogation because she had broken an asset. That was _far_ attention than she wanted this moment in time.)

She froze in place as she spotted a now-familiar head of dark hair, furthering smothering her chakra to near nothingness before giving a crow’s caw, her sign to Naruto that she had to abort.

The Uchiha, Shisui, was looking over at the Archives, possibly looking for _her_ because this was where he’d first come across her, and his eyes widened slightly once he did spot her before darting after.

Leaping down from her perch, she took off at a sprint, darting into the crowded market and trying to disappear amongst all the people.

(She almost thought she’d succeeded when she didn’t seem for a few long moments, but to be safe, decided to try out one of the tricks she’d recently learned from a C-rank medical ninjutsu scroll.)

Forcing her clumsy hands through the appropriate hand signs for a D-rank, she channeled her chakra through the roots of her hair and into her eyes, temporarily changing both colors.

Then he caught her shoulder just after her shoulder-length hair paled to white-like silver and her eyes became an ice-pale blue to mimic two different people.

She jerked out of his grip, sending herself flailing to the ground with the effort as she made her chin quiver with upset and her eyes filled with tears of panic and fear, before screeching, “PERVERT!”.

He’d gone pale and wide-eyed, just staring at her for the brief moment he could look at her before a sudden rush of people moved to separate them, many of them wanting to say their two words at him for his supposed behavior, allowing her to be washed to the side of the crowd, and out of his sight.

Only once she was about to meet up with Naruto under the Fourth’s head at the Hokage Monument, did she break her ninjutsu, knowing that she’d come _very_ close this time to being caught by her stalker.

(She didn’t want to give up the game yet. Not when she was winning and trying out a thousand one ways to evade pursuers in an urban setting.)


	11. Opportunities Come and Gone

The next day, as she stood in front of the Memorial Stone, tracing the fresh lines for her mother’s name, for the weathered lines of her father’s name, in the early morning light and lighting a stick of incense in their memory, she came across the silver-haired shinobi she’d seen in the village some days.

She’d been coming here every morning with her mother practically her entire life, and the two adults had come to an understanding early on that on the days he was in the village, he would hold the silence they created until the incense burnt down to nothing and they left before he greeted his own deceased loved ones. Since her mother had died, this was only the third time they’d crossed paths like this, and he had respected her little ritual of lighting an incense and holding a respectful silence even with the absence of her mother.

This time she broke the silence just as her incense finished burning down, “Shinobi-san, is it common among your ranks to stalk a child if they think they have potential?”.

(She had a captive audience here, as she knew he wouldn’t leave until he could talk with his dead, and she had _questions_.)

She knew that she had managed to catch him off-guard when his one visible eye blinked rapidly a couple of times before he sheepishly brushed a hand through his shaggy mop of hair, “Ma, yes . . and no. Typically, if a shinobi thinks a child has potential, they don’t have to stalk a child because the child is soon caught and quickly identified. About once a generation though, there will be one child that will be harder to catch though. Why do you want to know?”.

(She was well aware that they both knew why she had asked – and that he was humoring her by not playing word games about it.)

Sakura stood up, brushing off her dress and acted like she had done nothing more than asking about the weather, “I seemed to have caught the attention of a shinobi. I may have evaded him thrice now, as well. I wanted to know if he was an actual stalker, or doing something resembling sanctioned reconnaissance.”, not noticing how his one eye narrowed speculatively at her, curious now as nothing he knew of her suggested that even if she _wanted_ to be a kunoichi, that she would such talent as that this young.

(He remembered her mother though, and wasn’t surprised she had the talent, just that she had the inclination to be capable in this way of life.)

Then she left, tossing a glare towards the far side of the glade on her way out.

(Appearing to miss how the focus on her intensified, as the fact that she had noticed their observer _wasn’t_ a low-level skill, something that most shinobi didn’t learn until they were approaching jounin-level, was typically a sign for a chuunin to become a tokubetsu jounin when combined with another skill, or that they had a natural sensitivity to chakra that marked them as a sensor which was fairly rare.)

Shisui jumped down from a tree on the far side of the glade and soon stood next to the silver-haired shinobi once she was ‘gone’, peering at the Memorial Stone curiously, “Kakashi-sempai, do you know who she was visiting?”.

He turned a dark look at the Uchiha, because Kakashi could figure out from her less than subtle hint that the ‘stalker’ Sakura had been talking about was _him_ , and while he doubted that she would be pulled into the Uchiha clan’s power plays because of how close the younger shinobi was to the current Uchiha clan genius and had seen first-hand what it meant to be a pawn in those games. However, there was still the fact that if anyone else noticed his interest in her, she could be drawn in anyway, “Yes, but I’m not telling you Uchiha-san. Ask her yourself.”.

(Sakura smiled at his refusal to help Shisui from her perch in a tree just out of sight, chakra smothered other than the amount she was using to channeling to her ears to improve her hearing.)

Plopping down next to the standing Kakashi, Shisui outright _whined_ as he glanced back at where he could just barely sense her, “I would, but she keeps running away! I haven’t even gotten a name out of her!”.

That made Kakashi narrow his eye at the other shinobi, not really believing such a thing as he knew Shisui could have just flash-stepped and caught her in seconds, but for some _unfathomable_ reason – though he had his suspicions it was because this was _interesting_ , and like most Uchiha, tended to fixate on things but only on things that stretched their skills in some manner, which in this case, probably the chase – was choosing to limit himself, “Really? You _do_ know she isn’t your cousin and therefore a master at evasion. I’m sure a tokubetsu jounin, like yourself, could catch one _civilian_ child.”.

(He very much kept the knowledge of _who_ her mother was to himself. It was good to see an Uchiha flounder occasionally.)

Shisui pouted at that, having caught Kakashi’s insinuation and light admonishment, “Itachi already likes her for that. Thinks she’s _curious_.”, before shuddering lightly at the thought of Itachi ever gaining a protégé, “I don’t want to imagine if he decided to interfere and taught her some of his tricks.”. He crossed his arms, pouting down at the Memorial Stone that was being resolute in keeping its secrets, “I _could_ , but she keeps surprising me. The first time I underestimated her, and she slipped away before I realized it. The second time I just happened across her in the forest, and she caught me in a handful of staggered traps that while basic and a bit crude, were _effective_ enough that I was stalled. The third time she slipped into a crowd to escape, managed to change her hair and eye color to look a bit like your bastard child with a Yamanaka, then screamed pervert after I caught her arms.”, shrinking in on himself some, “Uncle gave me a _thorough_ dressing down for that when I got home last night, saying that it was a disgrace for an Uchiha to be called a pervert. Though I’m sure Obito is laughing at such a thing after listening to you recalling the ‘amazingness’ that is Jiraiya-sama’s work so many times.”.

Kakashi chuckled, “I’m sure he is. I’m also sure that he’s finding this whole situation with you amusing. Seeing you being outsmarted by a _kid_. And a little girl at that.”, eye softening as he visually traced a pair of names, “He could tell you all about how Rin stole his heart by pounding him into the dirt that first year they were at the Academy. He would also say that the women to love are all better shinobi than we are.”.

Shisui laughed loudly at that, “They are! Mikoto-sama claimed her spot as Uchiha matriarch not because she married Fugaku and he’s the leader of the clan by blood-right, but because she beat him in battle. I imagine that if Obito had proposed to Rin-sempai, that between her and Mikoto-sama, we would have had a revolution on our hands.”. Then he shuddered at the thought of the girl _he_ admired joining such a duo, “Hana-chan would have had way too much fun acting on their behalf, particularly if it meant that she could knock the Uchiha collectively down a peg or three, and especially if it meant she could get one over Itachi.”.

Kakashi shuddered with him, “Kushina-nee would be cackling right next to Mikoto-sama, and making to spread that revolution out from among the Uchiha into the village. Minato-sensei said that he had always admired her and her convictions, but it wasn’t until she had knocked him down two seconds into a spar that he realized that he loved her. He also always said that if Konoha didn’t have that law saying Hokage had to be born in the village, that she surely would have become Hokage instead of him. Half of the ANBU are _still_ scared of her, eight years after her death, just waiting for her to rise from the grave to pound them into the ground for not doing more for her kid.”.

Shisui shook his head slightly at the Memorial Stone, having no doubt that it would have happened, had seen himself how between Mikoto and Kushina, the rift between the Uchiha and the village, subtle and always an undercurrent since the founding, had begun to heal, only to become exasperated after the Kyuubi Attack. That it could have healed completely regardless of the Kyuubi Attack if she and the Yondaime had lived, because those two women were forces of nature that took no bullshit, “Obito was right. I think that part of why I keep letting that little girl get away is that she reminds me of them, and I keep half-expecting to be beaten to a pulp if I push too far. It’s also why I keep pursuing her.”, smile just a tad wistful that someone else could instigate the change Kushina had started, and reconnect the Uchiha with the village, “It would be a pity to let her potential go to waste.”.

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, reading between the lines and catching that Shisui _wanted_ that change, and hoped that Sakura could instigate it, but didn’t say anything as Shisui stood up and left, leaving him gazing mournfully at the Stone and all the missed opportunities.

(Sakura left then, mind whirling with the details spoken and unsaid that had passed between the two. It was a lot to take in, but she wanted. She _wanted_.

She wanted to see the future that could have been.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is admittedly one of my favorite parts of this story, mostly because it spoke to something that is rampant throughout Naruto - wasted potential, and more specifically, the wasted potential of kunoichi (Konoha kunoichi mostly, because that was most of what was shown).


	12. Shisui Interlude I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of the former chapter one: To Find a Fledgling

When Shisui left the Memorial Stone, leaving Kakashi standing in silence, looking at his lost loved ones, he intended to follow through on some information he thought might relate to the girl he had been trying to catch for weeks now.

(Considering her _unique_ hair color, and that he had seen a merchant or two with the same hair color, he thought that she might be related to the primarily-merchant Haruno clan.)

Only by the time the sun had reached its zenith and began its decline, and he’d managed to find nineteen of the thirty members of the clan within Konoha at the moment, and that _every single one_ of them had said that there was no child matching his description of her in their clan.

(Considering that eight of the remaining clan members were children – of which unless he wanted to try his luck and fibbing a little by claiming he needed to talk to them because of ‘official Military Police business’ and use however long he had until the parents pressed for more details about why the _Military_ Police wanted to talk to _civilian children_ to ask if they knew her – one a chuunin out on an escort mission to the Land of Rice Fields – he’d checked with the mission roster after one snide comment about the estranged shinobi cousin made after he’d ‘left’ – and two more out on a long-term trading contract, Shisui was inclined to think that this information _might_ be a dead end.)

He wanted to put a few more hours into this lead though, to make sure he wasn’t missing something or wasn’t asking the right questions – because he _knew_ something was here, he just couldn’t _prove_ it – but he didn’t have high hopes that he would find out.

If there was any truth in the matter, he doubted that he would be finding something out in the next couple of hours on just persistence if the whole clan was in on not acknowledging a child as one of their own.

(It wasn’t like such a thing as an entire clan ignoring a clan member by blood, was foreign either. He’d heard about a bastard or two of great-great-uncle Madara running around Hi no Kuni from one of his ‘indiscretions at a brothel house’, whose only interaction with their clan was the sharingan being sealed away before it could form.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in reworking the old chapter two . . I may have added something like, another ten pages? Instead of around 30 pages - it became a little over 40? I completely blame this on how Shisui demanded a bit more backstory and Tsume wanted the Inuzuka to be complete BA.


	13. Sakura's Misadventure I - Low-Hanging Clouds in the Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/9 of the re-edit of Shisou no Karasu's chapter 2

Even as she was about to jump down from her current perch to the entrance of the Archives, having heard Naruto’s sparrow’s song as his signal that it was all clear, Sakura was thinking about how to get one particular B-rank scroll detailing chakra nature out while she was inside of the Archives. Only, her shinobi instincts, heightened from evading her ‘stalker’ so many times in the last two months, screamed that there are people approaching. Going still, she spread out her senses, sending out a thin pulse of chakra to get a better read on who those people were.

She had been practicing working on sensing chakra actively, particularly after coming across an intriguing passage a month ago about how the Nidaime had been a relatively weak sensor type, but had refined his skills in that direction early on to be second only a trained natural sensor, but knew she wasn’t particularly sensitive herself yet. Not to the degree of being able to pinpoint where somebody was within her meager range, just that there _was_ someone. She wasn’t at the level of being able to sense a jounin masking their chakra, or an ANBU, though she had her suspicions that the latter was often around watching over Naruto – he looked far too much like the deceased Yondaime to be a mere coincidence – and thus should be in the area.

The way her instincts were prickling right now though, told her that these people approaching were _not_ friendlies.

Quickly giving a crow’s caw to get Naruto away from there, not wanting to risk her only friend to only a _feeling_ , even as she wondered, if these _were_ enemy shinobi, why they hadn’t yet been intercepted by ANBU.

Sakura frowned at how not only their chakra was masked nearly completely from her senses, but at how they were moving too fast for the squirrel-sized chakra her senses did pick up. The _way_ they were moving, darting from each and every spot she’d already marked as being out of line of sight of both passing Konoha shinobi and for civilians in this area, said that they were trying to evade detection.

With each thing she identified, her estimate that these _weren’t_ enemy shinobi, went down and right now, she was all but convinced that was what they were.

Slipping into a nearby shadow, she smothered her chakra as small as she could make it go, even as she tried to sense out any friendly shinobi that she could get to or alert before she was stopped, when they came out of the shadow long enough to cross between two nearby and allowed her a glimpse of the three.

It was enough to show her they were Kumo shinobi, evident in their differently styled dress and their hitai-ate.

Her eyes sharpened, as she could figure out that they were in this part of the village, instead of the Hokage Tower, which held the truly sensitive information, or the Hyuuga compound, with the byakugan, they had come for another attempt at the Archives. Sakura had absolutely _no_ confidence in the chuunin currently guarding the Archives with her mother gone, as she’d been pranking them for more-or-less _this exact_ _reason_ – or at least, that was what she’d planned to reason this off at if questioned – and she wouldn’t see her mother’s sacrifice become null and void in their failure. She simply _couldn’t_.

(She wasn’t sure if she could forgive herself for being here and letting _them_ get exactly what her mother had _died_ to prevent.)

Sakura was unable to sense a shinobi nearby – not unless they were hiding, but why would they be hiding in village – and _hoping_ that she could snare an ANBU’s attention from wherever the nearest one’s was, but she would settle for drawing the three Kumo shinobi’s attention and forcing them to abort this mission, even if it meant her death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all going to be hating me until all of the misadventure is up - cliffhangers are a thing that happens in these snippets fully without intention but these are literally some of the best spots to cut while keeping the integrity of rising tension.
> 
> For those who have read the original - these nine chapters are going to add a few more details.


	14. Sakura's Misadventure II - Not Going Quietly into the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have said this chapter title the way it is said in Independence Day - We will not go quietly into the night!

Sakura flared her chakra, like if it had escaped her control in a moment of fear and panic, immediately drawing their attention as was her intention.

(She hoped and prayed to every deity she could think of in that moment that she’d flared high enough to register in the universal shinobi-code as requiring assistance _now_.

She hoped and prayed that it caught the attention of the few ANBU stationed in village; that it caught the attention of the Konoha Military Police patrolling.

She could accept her death if it meant they were stopped, but she wasn’t ready to die. She had people – Naruto – to protect, to get to know – Ino – things to do – become a shinobi that would make her mother proud, to see Naruto become Hokage – before she died.)

Her eyes were narrowed even as she forced herself into a crouch, folding in on herself as much as she could, into a small niche in the wall behind her out of an _easy_ line of fire. Her hands were clenched in fists, slowing her breathing as she searched for anything little, loose, anything that she could twitch and twist and sharpen like she had the grass in the park, while letting her chakra waver and flicker in more panic and fear than she actually felt – because she _was_ afraid.

(Her mother had told her that being brave wasn’t being without fear, but acting _despite_ that fear.

That fear kept a shinobi alive, kept them aware, but it had to be mastered, controlled, able to be pushed aside to think logically and act in a second.)

She wanted them to get close, so that she could cause just enough of a commotion that they would be forced away from their goal or risk drawing attention to themselves, if she hadn’t managed to already.

Her fear spiked when a kunai embedded deep into the wall next to her head before she’d even seen one of them grab a weapon, and she tried to push herself further into the niche as the three men landed on the perch near her.

Her chakra grasped at dust and dirt, and in a desperate attempt to do _something_ – because even if she had control enough to grab something so small and move it, she’d never practiced _this_ – she pushed her chakra out into their faces.

It only caused them to sputter and cough for a second, and if she’d had training, if she’d been able to move _faster_ , she could have escaped the corner she’d blocked herself into, been able to attack effectively. Instead, they recovered too quickly for her to do anything.

The one on the left, a man with sickly pale skin and slicked-back brown hair, scowled at the one the one in the middle as he brushed dirt from his face, “You missed, Kaname, she’s still alive.”, who was darker-skinned with short-cropped dark hair, who glared back, “Shut up Sousuke, I’ll finish her.”.

Sakura felt buried strength surge forward at such a clear dismissal of her, eyes flashing angrily as she channeled chakra to her arm and pulled the kunai free with a crack of stone and splatter of rock and dust, spraying more stones and dust out in front of her, and darted forward. She knew next to nothing about handling a kunai, but she was a daughter of Konoha, and it was easy to grasp the handle and slash out, to sink down into a crouch and leap toward Sousuke’s leg, to shove the kunai into Kaname’s thigh.

(She wouldn’t die easy, not here and now.

She was a daughter of Konoha, and she would protect her home, her village, with everything she had.)

Kaname bit out a curse, before snarling and reaching for her, having not considered her much of a threat for her age and size, and now was annoyed at how much of a _nuisance_ she’d proven to be, but she’d already scaled Sousuke’s back like the little monkeys her village was filled with to live amongst so many trees. His eyes narrowed at how she’d climbed until her arms were wrapped tightly around Sousuke’s neck, grabbing at her hair before she twisted and managed to get her teeth locked around his arm.

He punched her face when a simple yank of her hair wasn’t enough to make her let go, “Look, you little bitch-!”, and though she didn’t unclench her jaw despite how the bone creaked when he yanked harder, she lost her grip on Sousuke even as she wildly flailed to grasp at him, “Kaname,”. He narrowed his eyes at the third man, who had bronze skin and spiky blonde hair, growling out, “What,”, as he shook her by her hair, pulling out clumps of it when she stubbornly clung to his arm with her teeth even as the other man examined her coldly, “She could be useful. If she spotted us, she could know enough about Konoha to guide any future attempts into the village, possibly even help us retrieve a live Hyuuga. Our contact in the Archives could confirm any information she gives us, and if she lies, then we kill her.”.

Kaname looked skeptical even as he dropped the clumps of hair to be blown aside, pulling out the kunai she’d stabbed in his leg with a quiet grunt, “I doubt she could be more than marginally useful. She probably doesn’t know all that much.”.

Sakura struggled, flailing a little in an attempt to kick at his wounded leg, desperately trying to sense an ally as he punched her in the face again, then held the kunai against her throat as Sousuke eyed her, “Either we kill her, or we don’t, either way Tatsuya, we need to be meeting our contact, retrieving that information, and be on our way before we’re noticed. The longer we take, the likelier we’re to be noticed.”.

The third man, Tatsuya, nodded, “Then go meet our contact Sousuke, you have ten minutes before we leave.”, and Sousuke was gone, not down in front of the Archives, but inside.

Sakura froze not at the feeling of the kunai against her throat, but at hearing they had a contact inside the Archives.

She kept still because she knew if she even twitched right now, Kaname would slit her throat by ‘accident’, even as she mentally ran through all the ninja she knew was assigned there, having been there enough to know if not all, most, of them and was trying to identify who could be the traitor. Of the top of her head, there were three chuunin that she could think of that were less than – fanatically – dedicated the Archives as was typical to the permanent assignment and not part of the temporarily-injured-stuck-in-village rotation, that were high enough clearance to have anything worth stealing and whose ‘occasional’ incompetence might excuse a missing scroll as simply being ‘misplaced’ temporarily.

(She knew that she needed to live to be able to pass this information along so that the traitor could be smoked out.)

Sakura didn’t get the opportunity to drop and dash before Sousuke returned moments later as Kaname forced her to release his arm, and was binding it while Tatsuya bound her arms together behind her back, kunai still held to her neck, “You’re going to be quiet and not fight, or you’ll become too much trouble to keep alive no matter what you might know. Understand?”.

(She didn’t resist the urge to lick her lips and teeth of blood as she spat it out at their feet.

It was a simple channeling of chakra for it to surge through her mouth and burn out the last traces of foreign blood even as one side of her face swelled.

If it wouldn’t have guaranteed her death, she would have turned a _smile_ their way, because they’d dared to underestimate her and she’d drawn blood to spite them for it.)

She roughly swallowed, the left side of her face feeling like one massive bruise with parts bone-deep around her jaw and just under her chin from where Kaname had pried her jaw off him, and the kunai nicked her throat so a thick drop of blood beaded up underneath the sharp edge, so she verbally responded, "Hai".

Tatsuya slung her over his shoulder like a sack of rice then, and they took off, running out and away from Konoha without interference even if they had a couple close calls with the Military Police.

Sousuke took point, with Kaname at the rear, glaring at her suspiciously whenever she made any motion – even that which she couldn’t control, with her arms bound behind her, and hanging over the other man’s shoulder with one arm clasped over the back of her knees.

When their speed made her pink locks flutter into her face, sticking to her dry lips, she sucked on the ends before using the jerky motion her body was being carried with to hide out how she tore out a few more strands every little bit to leave a faint trail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D  
> (I may have snuck in a Bleach reference. Technically two if we're counting names.)


	15. Shisui Interlude II

It was about a month after his failed attempt to find anything about the pink-haired little girl he’d been trying to identify, having spent the last three weeks of that on a mission out-of-village, that an older woman approached him in the early morning hours.

As he browsed absently through the market for some dango to bribe his cousin to help him find the girl – Itachi had the strategic brilliance that would allow him to take all the details from his previous encounters to formulate where in the village he would be most likely to find her and how to catch her, but as he found it amusing to watch him fail, the bribe was necessary – the woman came up to him and told him that the child he’d been inquiring after was ‘Haruno Sakura’.

(Told him that Sakura was the daughter of the clan head’s late son and his kunoichi wife, though both mother and daughter had been disowned from the clan after the father’s death by their patriarch who had never approved of his son taking an ‘unpure’ kunoichi wife for the next clan matriarch.)

From there, he was able to get into public records to find that her father had died in the Kyuubi Attack – while protecting some of the elderly civilians in the evacuation when much of their force had been otherwise engaged and the remaining spread too thin – and that her mother – crippled during the same event and grounded to the village since – had recently been killed in the line of duty.

(Now aware that she was a clan-less orphan with kunoichi heritage – which explained a fair bit about her skill level and only making her a civilian on a technicality – he knew where she would be.)

He went to the Orphanage with the full intention of either confronting her there, or minimally finding out more about – find out if she even _wanted_ to be a kunoichi.

(If she did want to, he would deliver his recommendation to the Sandaime that she be enrolled into the Academy for the next year’s class, and his previous report about her potential – though the vague amusement he’d gotten from the Sandaime from his description of her still made little sense, but he figured he’d known _exactly_ who’d been describing – would help her, as there were few civilian-raised pre-genin that had such recommendations.)

Shisui walked in with one of his more serious faces on – no matter his little cousin’s refusal to believe he _had_ one – as he spoke to the young chuunin in charge for the moment, “Is Haruno Sakura here?”.

The chuunin looked to be a bit frazzled, trying to keep an eye on all of them at all times, having been _warned_ **many** times about the mischief they could get up to if just one escaped out of sight for just a moment, “She’s not here right now, Uchiha-san.”.

A small blonde boy collided with Shisui’s legs at the utterance of Sakura’s name, “Are you Sakura-chan’s stalker?!”, an almost fierce look – it came off more adorable with his cheeks puffed out and pout despite the glare – on his face.

A look that crossed the line into being straight-up comical with the wide grin that started curling up when Shisui made a face at once again, being referred to as a stalker, sputtering indignantly.

The kid looked almost like he was trying to decide if he wanted to help Shisui, or if he wanted to bite him for not answering the _very important question_ , when the chuunin, sputtering and red in embarrassment began to try to pull him off Shisui’s leg, “Uzumaki! Let go right now!”.

The blonde bit at the chuunin’s hand when it tugged too hard on his shirt and stretched the collar, and was almost smacked for it, but Shisui caught the hand before it could connect, giving the chuunin a displeased look out of the corner of his red-tinted eye as he squeezed tighter and tighter until he could hear the bones began to grind together, then let go as if nothing had happened with his threat delivered loud and clear, looking curiously at the blonde the greater whole of Konoha’s shinobi forces knew, “You know Sakura-chan?”.

The kid nodded quickly, one arm flailing around eagerly for his gestures, still clinging to his leg, “She’s my best friend! We’ve been pulling pranks together for _weeks_! Only when we were staking out her favorite target yesterday, she left without saying why we had aborted that prank. Then she didn’t come in for _curfew!_ ”.

Shisui was quick to learn that not turning up for curfew was a Very Big Deal for the kids of the orphanage.

It was clear when for all the mayhem and disorder in running this orphanage, that the kids took care of their own – perhaps better than they were by any adult, in Shisui’s opinion – as at the blonde’s statement, all the other kids in the room were coming closer, surrounding him while expressing their concern to an adult they realized _cared_ about one of them; “Sakura-chan must be in trouble!” “No one misses curfew if they can!” “Sakura-chan needs help shinobi-san!”.

(It was quickly apparent that the kids all believed that curfew was vital to their safety, and that missing curfew for them was the equivalent of a team on a mission running over a week late for a shinobi – clearly worrisome and cause to send out a search and rescue party.)

The chuunin didn’t share their concern, even if he did admit to some worry while trying to shoo the kids away from him, “Sakura-chan has never caused any trouble, and it _is_ most unlike her to be gone for so long. I already asked my friends in the village to at least keep an eye out for her, but there is no need for a search party yet. She probably is just lost on the other side of the village and one of the merchants there took her in for the night. I was told that she did have some distant family among them and that she was only to be here until all the paperwork was sorted out.”.

(Shisui shared the blonde’s attitude, as the personality of the girl he’d been chasing after wouldn’t worry a friend like the kid was – not without due cause for concern.

Not to mention he sincerely doubted that these kids would get lost – not when he had seen some of them at all ends of the village – and thought they actually knew the various nooks and crannies better than most of the shinobi.)

Pulling the kid off his leg from where he’d been clinging up onto his hip, he let the blonde chatter about Sakura – clearly a favorite subject as he didn’t seem to be running out of things to say as he started a basic grin search of Konoha.

(He had just wanted to talk to her to see if she even _wanted_ to be a kunoichi, but now he felt obligated to make sure she was _alive_ and not dying in some ditch.

With how Itachi, for all his younger cousin’s skill and unrivaled genius, was something of a pacifist – or as much as possible considering what they did for a living – and would have likely been happy as a civilian, he had not wanted to force Sakura into doing something she had no want of being just because she’d had some skill.

Listening to the blonde chatter though, he was quickly finding that she _very_ much wanted to be a kunoichi, but hadn’t wanted attention drawn to her burgeoning skill just yet. The blonde told him about she’d been reading as many scrolls as she could to be as close as she could be to being on equal footing with the clan kids when she planned to enter the Academy in the next year.)

Shisui was finding out a lot about Sakura as he systematically searched the village proper, fully aware that she _had_ managed to hide from him before, but he had the distinct feeling that she wasn’t hiding now. The longer he searched, the more his instincts were screaming that something was wrong.

(He was starting to fear that he would check some nook or crevice under a building or in a tree, somewhere small enough for a child her size could hide, and he would find her.

Bleeding out.

Dying.

Dead.

Killed because from what the kid on his hip had told him from what he’d said and hadn’t said, Sakura had made sure to get him away from the Archives. Killed because she’d witnessed something no one had wanted seen or seen someone where they weren’t supposed to be.

He hoped and prayed that it wasn’t as serious as that, but his mind wasn’t coming up with scenarios where she would be gone going on twelve hours without word after missing curfew.)


	16. Sakura's Misadventure III - Trail-blazer

When several hours passed without any sign of pursuit from Konoha, they slowed their rushed pace on the ground long enough for Tatsuya to drop Sakura.

The drop knocked the breath out of her, and before she got it back, or could feel anything past the pins-and-needles that resembled her legs, Kaname was pressing her bruised face into the dirt with his foot as Tatsuya attached a lead to her bound hands.

She was yanked to her feet by the lead, as she was struggling to get off her knees with numb lower legs, and stumbled into Tatsuya.

He sneered at her, and shoved her back, into Kaname’s chest.

(He shoved her away a moment later, sneering, “Watch it, bitch.”, but it was a moment long enough for her to get a hand into the pouch on his leg and swipe a weapon.

Naruto would be so proud that she’d mastered his pick-pocket tricks well enough for this.)

Sakura stumbled those first few minutes as she fought the numb feeling in her feet to keep upright, not having the benefit of a minute or two to get the blood flowing there naturally, easing it quicker with a little chakra as she was forced to walk between Kaname and Tatsuya.

(She made sure to drag her feet more than necessary.

Kaname was watching her too closely for her to tear out a few strands of hair as they walked, his suspicious eyes there because he hadn’t caught on before, but he was well-trained enough to realize that she’d been in a position to do something to leave a trail.)

Her stumbling hid her trail-leaving just as being roughly carried had hidden it before, and his paranoid mind was choosing to focus on how her hair kept flopping in her face and she would spit it out instead of how she slipped his kunai between her palms to her wrists and began the slow process of rubbing the sharp edge against rope.

(It would take a while to do so without drawing attention to herself, but her mind was already whirling as she worked out where within the borders of Hi no Kuni they likely were, and was thinking of how to use home-field advantage of the environment to give her the moment of inattention she needed to use the terrain to escape, then evade capture long enough it wouldn’t be worth it to hunt her down.)


	17. Shisui Interlude III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is Shisui demanding a little more backstory.

Shisui had searched all the areas she could have gotten to, and was allowed in – as most of the shinobi neighborhoods were, while not quite off-limits to civilians, were restricted to those allowed, not to mention those areas that were considerably more dangerous to children, even clan children beyond their respective compounds.

(Even then, he’d looked in the shinobi neighborhoods, and hesitated at the doorsteps of each clan compound – knowing that each clan had ways of knowing when there was an intruder, and that there was no chance she could be there without someone knowing, or even allowed in because Sakura didn’t know any of the clans.

He’d popped by the training grounds even, just to cover his bases in case she’d been watching and hurt by a stray weapon or jutsu.

Everywhere else, required special permission to be in, or was impassable at her current skill level – Area 44 had a seal over every entrance that required knowledge of a B-rank counter to enter – and there was no way she could be there.)

It was when his search turned up empty, that he knew he needed a second pair of eyes.

(It took _effort_ to not let his eyes bleed red, not with his emotions high.

It was worse because he’d only been a couple years older than her when he’d fought in the Third Shinobi War, and seen the bodies of children. Children who had gone missing only to turn up dead from a comrade.

He hadn’t been supposed to see, but one of his genin teammates had been missing, and after it had gotten out about Orochimaru’s experiments – and the bodies of friends, family, of enemies alike in his labs – he’d managed to slip past the guard, looking for him. He’d found him, nearly unrecognizable except for his eyes, which were wide and pleading with tears drying on his cool cheeks.

He couldn’t help that with the thought of a child being missing that his mind went straight to Orochimaru – to Ran.

He couldn’t bear the thought of another child going missing like Ran, without anyone to demand they look, with indifferent adults, to die alone and in pain.)

It took effort to not let his inner turmoil show as he gently let the blonde down after they’d nearly completed a whole circuit of the village, allowing only for a frown to convey he was _serious and not to be disobeyed_ , “Head back to the Orphanage, Uzumaki-kun, and stay there, I’ll bring Sakura-chan there when I find her.”, waiting only long enough for the boy to give a serious nod back, then running off, before he darted off himself.

(Naruto was smarter than people liked to give him credit for.

Uchiha-san was worried – as he _should be_ – and didn’t want him there if things weren’t going to have a happy ending. He wanted to demand to be there anyway, but he could also see that Uchiha-san was barely holding himself in check.

He would rather Uchiha-san stop holding back – he could wait for her to return if it meant Uchiha-san _returned with Sakura alive_. He would just wait proactively – letting his mind plan what he would do to make sure this didn’t happen again, on how he would get her back if it happened regardless, on what he would do if Uchiha-san couldn’t bring her back.

That was the first time he heard darkness chuckle, **_I was wondering if you had it in you, kit, after all, not everything can be sunshine_**.)

Shisui went straight to the dango stall Itachi liked to pretend wasn’t his favorite.

He knew the serious look on his face – the red tint to his dark eyes – as he snatched the dango out of his cousin’s hand was the only reason why he wasn’t getting a kunai to the hand (again) for taking his cousin’s sweets _again_ , “Itachi, I need your help.”.

Itachi raised an eyebrow as he ate another ball of his dango from the stick back in his hand, silently asking for details, “That girl I’ve been trying to find, I found out her name: Haruno Sakura. I tracked her to the Orphanage, to talk with her. Only, she missed their curfew last night, and the kids there are acting like we do when a comrade is over a week late from a mission. I did a grid search of Konoha already, but I still can’t find her.”.

Shisui tried to not fidget in his anxiety, as the kids had gotten him worried over Sakura and no one had seen her in far too long from what he’d gathered, shifting restlessly with the urge to _chase_ as his cousin frowned faintly, “You do not think she is hiding from you again? She has proven to be fairly adept at that.”.

(Itachi stood from his seat, quietly paying for his dango while his cousin shifted restlessly.

The shifting was familiar, as it always proceeded when the other wanted to _chase after_ something, but the look in his eyes was nothing like his usual happiness to _chase_. He hadn’t seen it in years, not since the end of the last war.

He could see that Shisui was perhaps two seconds from a contained meltdown if he wasn’t given direction to _chase_ – to chase after Sakura. To save her where his cousin had failed to save Ran.)

Shisui shook his head, “No. Her friend said she aborted their prank yesterday around the Archives, and he didn’t see her again afterward. Even the chuunin in charge of the Orphanage this month was a little worried about her absence, just he thought she was with some extended family for the night. But I’ve been talking to that clan; they won’t even acknowledge her. One woman had to pass information to me on the sly for me to even get her _name_.”, continuing to shift restlessly, nearly bouncing on his toes, “When I was doing that grid search, I scanned for her chakra. She’s smothered it before, but not completely, and I haven’t been able to find any trace of her in the village at all.”.

(Shisui would have grinned at how his cousin had moved to follow him as he finished his dango, letting him lead the way.

If it hadn’t been full of teeth and the wrong type of eager.)

Itachi frowned, “You said that the last place she was seen, was the Archives? Did you check the area for any sign of her?”.

(He couldn’t help comparing her to his little brother, as they were roughly the same age.

His mind went straight to the what-ifs of if this was _Sasuke_ missing.)

His eyes gained a bit of a red tint as he followed his cousin’s near-shunshin, “I didn’t check the area yet. Uzumaki-san was with me, and I didn’t want to worry him if I found something.”, watching as Shisui’s face tightened, clearly already thinking along the lines of the worst possible scenario.

(He knew at least half of his cousin’s level of response right now was because of Ran, but he was also aware enough to know that Sakura wasn’t just another villager to Shisui. He couldn’t quite name what it was, but Shisui wouldn’t let this go.

He imagined that if Sakura was dead, that Shisui would be on another on-call list for first-action against anyone involved like they were against Orochimaru, but wondered who else would be with him on that.)

Only after they had searched the area, they found little to no sign she’d been there recently.

Itachi watched his older cousin’s face stiffen then become a coolly indifferent mask to hide his growing anxiety, before he spoke in clipped tones, “I think we need to report this to Sandaime-sama.”.

He watched as Shisui slipped in through the window from behind the Sandaime, then knelt like he was delivering a mission report, following to kneel at his left. He watched as the Sandaime’s face smoothed out from the smile he’d started to greet them with, “Shisui-kun, Itachi-kun, what brings you to me?”, to a carefully neutral mask.

Shisui didn’t look up as he spoke, “I believe the girl I’ve been trying to catch is missing. I finally found out her name: Haruno Sakura; and tracked her to the Orphanage. Only to find that she missed last night’s curfew, and she was last seen yesterday afternoon at the Archives abruptly aborting a prank on a chuunin there. I searched the village for any trace of her chakra, and found nothing. We searched the area around the Archives, and found nothing.”.

Upon hearing Shisui’s report, the Sandaime was a bit worried – being not just a chronic worrier, but a father and a new grandfather, “I suspected you were chasing Sakura-chan. I knew her mother, Ren-chan, well. That woman was smart; could keep up with Shikaku without much trouble. Last I remember, they were 273-146-112 in Shikaku’s favor in their shogi games.”, a faintly guilty look coming to his face, “Had a fantastic head for administrative tasks. After she was crippled in the Kyuubi Attack, and she could no longer do field work, I assigned her to the permanent rotation at the Archives. She died recently stopping several Kumo shinobi from making off with any of the intel hidden there, while the rest went to the Hyuuga compound and tried to kidnap Hinata-chan. Sakura has been incredibly defensive of the place, particularly as her mother had just worked her way up to S-level clearance prior to her death, as evident by the complaints I’ve been getting about the general mayhem happening there for the last month.”.

He felt guilty over Ren’s death, and knew her daughter would do no less than give her life to protect her mother’s sacrifice, and feared she had tried to do exactly that, “Shisui-kun, Itachi-kun, I’m assigning you a D-rank mission to find Haruno Sakura and bring her back to me. Shisui-kun, you are squad leader. Get Inuzuka Hana to track her. Now go.”.

(The Sandaime had known that the Haruno clan would not take her, but her father’s brother might. Only the man and his wife were out on a long-term circuit as a pair of merchants, as per his request to get a read on the political climate of the other five great villages, and to embed several people there to send him reports on the growing steadily unstable political arena.

That circuit was only a third complete, so they wouldn’t be back in the village for at least another six months if all went well and all trading was pushed forward without any delays. Which was unlikely considering that not two days before, he’d gotten word from her uncle that they were delayed in Suna until the rains cleared up.

However, his wayward youngest son was already on his way back to the village from his time as a ‘Guardian of Fire’ after word of Ren’s death, and he had plans to see if Asuma would be amicable to hosting her until her aunt and uncle returned – as he would not recall the two early from such an important mission.

Raising her for a while would be good for both of them; they both needed a stronger connection to the village as only his protection shielded Asuma from the Council’s doubts about his continued loyalty and Sakura had few things holding her to the village with her mother dead while ostracized from her clan, vulnerable to some traitor playing on that. If they were seen bonding, and Asuma assimilated back into village life without issue, the Council’s doubts would be quieted and he would feel less like he was failing Ren.)

Shisui quickly left with Itachi once they were dismissed, leaping back out the window and in the direction of the Inuzuka compound.

While they ran, he addressed his cousin, “I’ll get Hana and will explain our mission to her. Go get anything you think we might need, and meet us at the Archives in ten minutes. We have no idea what we’re walking into; if she’s simply lost in the forest, taken, or ran off.”. Itachi nodded, before diverting off towards the Uchiha compound to retrieve some of his supplies, leaving Shisui to continue towards the Inuzuka compound.


	18. Shisui Interlude IV

Coming to a stop momentarily at the entrance of the compound to change his pace to something closer to a walk – it wasn’t really, but at least it was no longer just shy of shunshin – Shisui nodded politely to the various Inuzuka he passed as he went deeper.

(They watched him with sharp eyes as he did, as he reeked of stress and anxiety and barely leashed anger with his eyes tinted red in the light.

Many of them slipped into the shadows, following his path then circling around his destination, wondering if they would need to _hunt_ this _youkai_ given human form if he gave in to baser instincts.

They stilled at the flicker of a glance their matriarch gave them.)

He found Hana, her mother Tsume, and their dogs, Kuromaru and the Haimaru brothers, near the center of the compound, sparring.

Shisui gave an acknowledging nod to Tsume, before his eyes slid over to where Hana was picking herself up from where her mother had bodily thrown her across their sparring ring, “Hana-chan, we have a mission.”.

The fourteen-year-old kunoichi smiled with teeth as she straightened her long brown hair in its ponytail from where half had fallen out, the two long bangs she left framing her face drawing attention to how her large black eyes were bright, “What type of mission Shisui-kun?”. He eyed her usual outfit for a moment; the light brown leggings and jacket with the white fur around the collar over a black netted shirt and the grey sash around her waist, “A retrieval mission. One of the kids from the Orphanage is missing, and no one’s seen her since yesterday. Sandaime-sama ranked it a D, but he did mention that her mother had died defending the Archives from those Kumo shinobi that were here a couple of months ago, and that was where she was last seen. We don’t know what we’re walking into, so you should bring a fair bit of your medical supplies with you, just in case.”, taking particular note of the new large pouches around the back of her waist. She nodded, “So I’m the tracker as well as the medic. You’re the captain, I presume, but is anyone else coming?”, petting at the half-grown grey puppy at her side, the other two grey canines watching him closely with their amber-brown-on-black eyes.

(Shisui got the feeling that like all Inuzuka hounds, they knew more than they revealed, and he wouldn’t be surprised if they knew some of what he hadn’t had a chance to say already.

Any other day, any other time, he would have taken a page out of Itachi’s book and raised a mildly-challenging eyebrow at the dogs, but it was too hard to resist the urge to shift restlessly with the _chase_ on; that would be pushing his limits.)

Shisui nodded, “Itachi; he’s meeting us at the Archives.”.

Hana bowed her head to her mother, sensing the urgency Shisui was barely suppressing in his voice, “Excuse me Kaa-san,”, before she was running off with the three dogs at her heels, leaving Shisui with the older woman and her wolf-like dog.

The woman had the wild dark brown hair, vertical slit-like pupils in dark eyes, elongated canine teeth and nails, and red fang kumadori-style tattoos as typical of her clan, with dark purple lipstick and dressed in the standard outfit of a tokubetsu jounin, with a chuunin flak jacket and black shirt and leggings underneath with her sleeves rolled up and bandages around her lower legs above her sandals. She smiled widely at him, her eyes as sharp as her teeth, “Uchiha-san, Hana better come home.”, her warning unstated but very clear, before turning that smile to the side, softer now with affection, “Hana! Come on, time is of the essence in a retrieval like this.”.

Hana made a huffy annoyed sound while she adjusted the bag on her back, the three dogs moving around her legs, “I _know_ Kaa-san.”, before looking at Shisui, “Short of a month-long mission in enemy territory, I should be ready.”.

Shisui nodded politely at Tsume, just as much an acknowledgment of her earlier warning as taking his leave, before making an abrupt exit with Hana and the three Haimaru brothers on his heels towards the Archives.

(Tsume watched them go, flickering her hand and not needing to see that four of her most loyal clansmen quickly kneeled in front of her, “Quietly investigate on how a child could disappear from Konoha without anyone the wiser for so long.”.)

From there, they met up with Itachi, it did not take long for Hana’s dogs to find Sakura’s scent, with three male scents.

(Hana herself could smell Sakura’s fear lingering even twelve hours later, just as pungent as it was fading.)

Then they were following the four scents out of the village, in the direction of the Land of Lightning.


	19. Sakura's Misadventure IV - No Damsel

As the hours dragged on and she became physically exhausted from the long march, she was more-or-less being dragged along by Tatsuya, while her mind still spun lightning fast trying to find a way to get away before they crossed the border because she knew the moment they did, the chances of her escaping successfully went down exponentially with every meter.

(She took full advantage of her actual exhaustion, having begun playing it up that first hour walking so she stumbled and fell, shoulders slouching and yawning.

By the third, she let Tatsuya pull most of her weight forward, acting dead on her feet.

By now, the fourth hour, she’d convinced Kaname well enough that he’d moved forward, taking up her lead as Sousuke began scouting ahead some.

It was enough that she’d managed to cut her bindings down to just a thread connecting them, kunai clutched in her hand as watched for an over-large protruding root within her path while Sousuke scouted. She just needed to even her odds a little after she played at tripping.)

They had been moving in a northeastern direction, beginning to approach the border after nearly a day of travel, when she stumbled over a protruding root and sunk to her knees, acting as if her legs were physically unable to hold her own weight anymore.

(She strained her senses in one last desperate hope that they’d gained pursuers – she didn’t doubt Naruto would have made a fuss by now, but she didn’t have much hope that they would have listened in enough time to assist before she had to try.

If it wouldn’t have alerted the Kumo shinobi of the three quickly approaching chakra signatures from behind them, she would have cried in relief.

Instead, she modified her plan on the fly to keep them here for a few moments longer.)

Sakura ignored how Kaname growled and grabbed her by her hair to pull her up until she was standing again, before letting her legs give out beneath her, focusing instead all of her attention on those three approaching chakra signatures, recognizing one for sure, and a second she thought she knew as well.

(If it wouldn’t have given the game away, she would have grinned wide and sharp, because these three Kumo shinobi were _fucked_ if she was even half right.)

She faked a faint, completely collapsing if not for how Kaname had a grip on her hair, letting her body be dead weight and incapable of supporting herself, before snapping the bindings holding her wrists and shoving her stolen kunai into Kaname’s stomach while flaring her chakra as high as she could.

(Her grin was maniac as she twisted it while sinking it in until her hand was bloody, baring all of her teeth at Kaname before pulsing her chakra out, and making it ripple across the plant life and rocks, sharpening them beneath their feet.)


	20. Shisui Interlude V

The three Haimaru brothers had quickly picked up Sakura’s faint scent trail in a building overlooking the Archives, through her scent quickly faded to near nothing without contact with anything but the person holding her, and they were forced to instead to track the three men that had been there with Sakura.

(It was a hollow comfort, but a comfort non-the-less that they hadn’t killed her there, because it meant there was a chance she was still alive.)

As they followed the scent trail out of the village into the surrounding forest to the northeast, Itachi’s sharp eyes had caught a glimpse of pink hair being left every thirty meters or so.

(Shisui’s eyes had taken on a bright red tint at that, proud that the little girl was managing to leave them a trail to follow, but growing increasingly angry at the fact that she’d had to in the first place – that she’d been taken from the middle of the village without anyone noticing. Heads would be rolling if he had his way with the consequences over the lax security, particularly after Kumo’s failed attempt not even two months before which had already orphaned Sakura already. It made him think there was a traitor in their midst. He would certainly be having a conversation with his uncle Fugaku about stepping up the Konoha Police patrols, because clearly _somebody_ was slacking and he had his suspicions who.)

They were nearly to the border when their outstretched senses – pushed to their very limits as with each hour, each minute that passed, they knew they were racing a clock before they would find a broken body on the other side – alerted them to four bodies.

Not a moment later Sakura flared her chakra – bright and _alive_ and blinding with the force it threw at everyone close enough, indiscriminate of who was caught looking as it made sparks dance across their vision.

(It was fire, flame, everything desperate to be alive.

It was solid, steady, saying _here I am_.)

Itachi, with his better than average chakra control was the quickest to pinpoint where Sakura actually _was_ , as following the flare was a pulse of exhausted chakra, allowing him to signal to the right ahead of them with a quick hand-sign in Konoha shorthand for twenty meters.

It was all Shisui needed to release his built-up chakra for what was already being recognized as his signature move, the shunshin no jutsu.

He had been a little young to have had the chance to have learned the hiraishin as a member of the Yondaime’s Guard Platoon, but he had seen the Yellow Flash in action the night of the Kyuubi Attack, and it had _inspired_ him. As such, he had nearly perfected the shunshin no jutsu, earning him the moniker of Shunshin no Shisui, and thus, immediately faded from sight without a trace once he had _direction_.

He reappeared directly in front of Sakura as she was picked up by her throat, eyes blazing green fire as she bared her teeth and clawed at the bandaged arm, breaking the hand holding her up before he was scooping her up in his arms in mid-air as she fell and leaping out of the fray as Hana and Itachi converged on the disorientated enemy shinobi in a pincer movement.

(Sakura watched in awe as the three Kumo shinobi were quickly disabled – Kaname killed in short order – then bound and gagged, and stripped of everything that could even remotely become a weapon before being knocked out as an extra measure.)

Shisui adjusted his hold on her, red eyes looking her over and taking in all her bruises and scratches, before awkwardly scratching the side of his face, “Ne, Blossom-chan? This is a hell of a way to meet you face-to-face, you little escape artist, is it not?”.

Her eyes narrowed, face screwing up in childish anger to belly the rage they’d glimpsed in her eyes before, before she reached up to bring her fist down on his head with considerable force, “You stalker!”.

As he blinked the stars from his eyes, surprised at how _hard_ she’d managed to him, tears budded up in her eyes and her chin wobbled, before she quietly began to cry from all the stress and fear of her kidnapping, “Y-you stalker, I’m glad you noticed I was gone. No one else would have, because no one would have believed Naruto . . !”.

Shisui gave panicked looks to both Itachi and Hana, having _no_ idea what to do with a crying child, before he held her out to his cousin, hoping Itachi would know what to do with her – _and how to make her stop_ – with a younger sibling her age of his own.

Itachi automatically caught her, and not missing a beat, she wrapped her arms around his neck and started to cry into his shoulder, slumping down into his arms, exhausted. He awkwardly hoisted Sakura onto his hip, like he would Sasuke sometimes – though not so much now as his little brother had his pride and had started to protest being treated like a ‘baby’ – not sure on how to properly carry an unrelated, younger girl.

(As she quickly succumbed to sleep after the tiring day, he was drawn to study the way teardrops clung to the petal pin lashes closed over viridian green eyes and a porcelain cheek – the other blemished by yellowing bruises. The young teen thought that she looked like a china doll his mother had once admired in a shop when she’d been pregnant with Sasuke, being so small and fragile-looking, elegant and beautiful with her coloring and form. Yet she was far hardier than any gave her credit for, when she fell from her shelf and remained in one piece.)

Once Sakura was away from Shisui, Hana smacked the year older teen, “You baka!”, and quietly began to admonish him for treating the traumatized younger girl like a sack of rice. He sheepishly scratched at the curls on the back of his head, letting the girl lecture him as he wasn’t very proud of his behavior either.

After Hana had run out of steam, Shisui opened up a spare scroll and sealed the unconscious bodies – and the one dead – of the three Kumo shinobi before beginning the trek back to Konoha with the other two soon on his heels.


	21. Sakura's Misadventure V - Homeward Bound with a Tomcat, Bitch, and Weasel

They were nearly back to Konoha when Sakura groggily woke up on Itachi’s back, blurrily looking at the dark blue high collar shirt in front of her face as his short ponytail of silky ebony ticked her bruised cheek where it lay on his shoulder.

Before vague memories of being rescued could resurface, Sakura abruptly jerked her head forward to slam her only slightly large forehead into the back of his head in an attempt to stun him. They both groaned in pain, before Sakura used the small slackening of his grip on the back of her knees to try and detach herself from him then flee.

(The pouch at his waist she almost tried for, but at this point, fleeing instead of fighting was looking to be a better option – she just wanted to go _home_.)

She nearly managed to fall off his back before his grip tightened while both of their heads throbbed in pain.

Shisui’s cackles and breathless, “She _head-butted_ you . . !”, reminded her of her rescue.

Sakura was horrified at her previous action, going rigid as all the color fled from her face, “Gomen! I didn’t . .”.

She felt more than heard Itachi’s sigh, “Sakura-san, I am fine. There’s no offense to be taken for showing good instincts.”.

Shisui continued to laugh, “Sakura-chan, that was brilliant!”, until Hana smacked him after seeing the girl had started to go bright red, “That’s enough Shisui! You’re embarrassing her.”. He pouted for a moment – happy that he’d saved _this one_ , and it had taken little for him to break out in smiles and laughs, but it _had_ been funny that his perfect little cousin had been head-butted – but neither of the other two looked like they cared one iota so he dropped the pout with a muttered, “Heartless, that’s what you two are.”.

Hana rolled her eyes at the immature teen, then smiled at Sakura, whose cheeks had just turned nearly back to their normal color, “Sakura-chan, I’m Inuzuka Hana. It’s nice to finally meet the person Shisui has been muttering about constantly for the last two months.”.

Sakura blushed a bit at the praise, turning her cheeks a pale pink, unable to meet the other girl’s eyes in her shyness. It wasn’t a common occurrence for someone to praise her, as even her mother had been fonder of just saying that she was proud – which she’d treasured every time, but it had been vague and she’d wanted someone to say _what_ had impressed them – than any praise. She gave a small smile to Hana, “It’s nice to find out my stalker isn’t some creep.”, mischief sparking in her eyes.

Hana’s barking laugh filled the space around them, “Nice one Sakura-chan!”, as Shisui pouted at the two girls, “Is it pick on Shisui day or something?”.

Itachi gave his cousin a deadpan look, raised an eyebrow then gave a short nod, “Hn,”.

Shisui gaped at his cousin, before looking between him and the snickering Hana, both understanding the untranslated Uchiha-nese as ‘Yes, it’s marked on our calendars’, “Did you hear that?! Itachi-chan made a joke!”.

Itachi’s look became icy at Shisui’s slip into a nickname that only his mother could call him, and that he protested deeply whenever there was an audience to Shisui’s bad habit, having mostly given up on getting him to stop completely, his gaze being nearly deadly even without flickers of red in his dark eyes when Hana snickered, “Itachi-chan?”.

(For calling him _that_ in range of Hana’s hearing – particularly as he’d managed to keep it from her for the _five years_ they’d been on a team together – Shisui would soon be suffering _quite_ severely.)

Sensing the impending doom only held back by the fact that Sakura was still attached to Itachi, and that he only had until they returned to the Sandaime before Itachi would act, Shisui quickly widened his strides to ‘scout on ahead’ as to not tempt him prior to that.

They all knew that he was all but running away from Itachi though, what with the low-level Killing Intent Itachi was radiating in his direction.

(Even with her hands shaking a little from being in range of the KI, Sakura could see _why_ the older boy might be called ‘-chan’ with his borderline _pretty_ looks, though she wasn’t so suicidal to say so to his _face_.

Which made her wonder about _Shisui’s_ survival instinct – or more accurately, his lack of it.)

Sakura looked around her, thinking it was best to change the conversation to something else before Shisui had the opportunity to say something bordering on suicidal _again_ , when her eyes fell upon the Haimaru brothers.

(Moving around Konoha as much as she had, she’s seen her fair share of ninken, messenger hawks, and summons throughout the village, but the fact was that while the Inuzuka clan all had ninken, they were the only animals she’d seen with black sclera.)

Looking back at Hana, she saw her chance to ask about he ninken without drawing too much attention to her interest, “I know that all Inuzuka have ninken, but why are they the only ones to have ninken with black instead of white for their eyes?”.

The kunoichi blinked for a moment at the question, as even shinobi, as nosy as they were as a standard for their profession, didn’t often ask point blank about such a thing; it had been just another thing to separate an Inuzuka ninken from other ninken, like those of the Hatake, for so long that most didn’t think to ask. Then she smiled as she looked over the Haimaru brothers, _pleased_ to be able to tell some of her clan’s history to somebody beyond her clan again, “That would be because they are not dogs like one would think.”.

Her grin was fanged and the line the Inuzuka walked between human and animal blurred with the sense of _wild_ she gave, “In the time of the Rikudou Sennin, the monomoke themselves still interacted often with us humans. We of the Inuzuka, lived near the House of the west, where the leader of the inugami lived. As such, we were called spirit-touched, particularly when occasionally, a clan member would mate with an inugami and a hanyou would be introduced into the family line.”, blurring further at the reflective sheen to her eyes visible in the low light, “In exchange for allowing our clan to continue to exist in both worlds, the daiyoukai in charge of the inugami made us a deal: when an inugami went rogue, we would be the ones to hunt them down and put them down.”.

One of the Haimaru brothers, Haiharu by the darker streak down his spine, rubbed against her thigh “We did so, but as time went on, the inugami blood in our line got thinner, and it got harder to hunt down rogue inugami. One clan member, whose blood was more inugami than we’d had since the times of our hanyou, chose to remain in his dog form then to assist his family, and from him, do our ninken descend from. _That_ is why they are smarter and larger than even other ninken – as they are closer to human than animal.”, and smoothed the ruffled fur on his neck, “It was only after the Inugami Lord was killed by a ryuuji lord, that we left the area and eventually came here to join Konoha.”.

Sakura looked at Itachi, seeking some sign from him if this was true or some elaborate lie, because considering some of the widespread lore of the Rikudou Sennin and Kaguya, and of the numerous summons, such history would not be hard to see as true.

(Such history was often easy to blur with myth, and so little of history was known prior to the end of the warring states period with the founding of Konoha. Even that was hard to differentiate sometimes.)

He gave a small inclination of his head, having been the other person outside the Inuzuka that Hana had told this to – and having some clan lore of his own involving a tengu, he did not doubt that there was some truth in what she said.

Sakura was quiet the remaining time of their return to Konoha, digesting what Hana had told her and trying to assimilate such lore into what she already knew of the world. The fact that this could be _true_ , made those stories of the Rikudou Sennin, of Kaguya, seem much more plausible.

(It also made her inner researcher run in circles because now she needed to find as much lore as she could of those two, of about the Warring States period and earlier. A ninja’s life depended not on their strength, but the depth of their knowledge. An ignorant ninja was a dead ninja, as a knowledgeable ninja could figure out a weakness for an enemy from the wealth of information they knew.

The chances that her life would be dependent on this knowledge, was admittedly slim, but it was always better to be prepared for all scenarios.

It also reminded her that at some point in the years to come, before she graduated from the Academy, she needed to get her hands on a Bingo Book. There were older ones kept in the Archives, in the S-rank section, and she needed to think of a plan to get her hands on at least one of those. One of those would expand her information base, and help her prepare for the sorts of ninja she could come across in her career by giving her the most dangerous of opponents from an era of war.)

Her thoughts were interrupted by the welcome sight of the Front Gates of Konoha back-dropped by the Hokage Monument.

Against her will, tears budded in her eyes at the sight.

(She hadn’t thought it coherently, but it had been spinning in the back of her mind since she was dragged out of Konoha none-the-less: that she would never see Konoha again.

Now, she was back _home_ and it overwhelmed her.)

Shisui smiled at her as he widely gestured at the gate, “We’re home Sakura-chan,”, before the two chuunin there waved at them in greeting.

He approached them ahead of the rest of their small group, and waited there for them.

One of the chuunin, and Inuzuka by the red fang kumadori-style tattoos on his cheeks and the large brown dog at his side, smiled at Hana, “Hana-chan,”, then addressed each of the Haimaru brothers, “Hainatsu, Haiharu, Haikaede,”, looking at each as he said their names, “Welcome home.”. She smiled back, “It’s good to be home, “Masaki-san, Haru,”, before he let them pass.

Back in the village, and feeling once more strong enough to walk on her own with hours of sleep, Sakura tapped Itachi’s cheek to get his attention before making a gesture pointing down. He nodded, and stopped, bending so that she could climb down and walk beside them on her own.

Once she was on the ground, the three Haimaru brothers immediately started sniffing at her. Childishly giggling when one, Hainatsu by the fact his coat was a lighter grey with a pale-yellow undercoat, stuck his cold nose under her arm, “Sakura hugged him around his neck, saying into his fur, “Arigato, for rescuing me,”. Hana smiled at the three boys circling Sakura, licking at her face and pushing her along with their noses.

(It made Hana wonder if perhaps there was an Inuzuka in her family tree somewhere, because they treated her like any other Inuzuka pup, treated her like they did her younger brother Kiba. She doubted it, but thought to tell her mother anyway that she may yet have another kid if those three had any say because it wasn’t often that someone outside the Inuzuka treated their ninken like they were people – even hearing the clan lore – and were thus practically adopted by the dogs.)

They pushed and pulled Sakura along through the village, and up the stairs of the Hokage Tower after Shisui gave a subtle greeting the ANBU perched nearby, right up to when they stood in front of the Sandaime.

Sakura’s eyes teared up some at the sight of him, before she blinked them away and straightened, trying to deliver a mission report like her mother had taught her, “Ojii-sama, while I was pulling a prank on a chuunin at the Archives, I detected a few chakra signatures that were moving in a path that put them in the blind-spots of any patrolling shinobi or to any civilian. Seeing that their target was the Archives, I caught their attention, intending to cause enough of a scene that they would abort their target or be noticed by ANBU. I failed there; then one revealed that they had an informant at the Archives before they took me with them, intending to gain enough information to capture a Hyuuga from the village alive.”.

She fought a yawn then, still exhausted.

The Sandaime waved her over, “You did good, Sakura-chan. Cheeky just like your mother too, calling me ‘Ojii-sama’ in a mission report.”, scooping her up and holding her on his lap, where she curled up and fell back asleep.

Then he gestured for Itachi and Hana to leave, with the understanding that they would hand him a written report by the end of the day, before Shisui handed over the scroll with the three Kumo shinobi sealed inside and delivered his own verbal report, giving the rest of the events of Sakura’s _misadventure_.

He dismissed Shisui with a frown, agreeing with the younger man’s assessment that the fact that the three had gotten within Konoha so easily, when he knew for a fact that ANBU patrols in that area were still increased after Kumo’s last attempt there, was _odd_. He didn’t want to say quite yet that it meant there was a traitor, beyond the one Sakura had reported, but either somebody was slacking or somebody had allowed them past. Neither option boded well.

Waving down his ANBU guard from where the two had been observing quietly out of sight, he didn’t need to say aloud that he wanted them to investigate into Sakura’s claims of a traitor and to make subtle inquiries into who would have been patrolling in that area and missed this.

Both Rabbit and Cat nodded, then they were gone, leaving him to his thoughts with Sakura asleep against him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to who knows what I'm alluding/referencing to as background for the Inuzuka.


	22. Asuma Interlude I

Asuma returned to Konoha a couple of days after Sakura had been to the Orphanage after her kidnapping – after she was given a visit by a medic to heal the wounds she’d gotten from her misadventure.

His father had sent word shortly after the death of his old genin-teammate and friend Ren, and he had immediately departed from the Daimyo’s company and his post as a Guardian of Fire as soon as he was able.

(His friends among the other Guardians had understood that he had wished to pay his respects to a dear friend, and be there for her child after he hadn’t been for their mother.

They had already been on the verge of disbanding with several of them having received word from their previous associates that they were being requested back. Several of the samurai in the group would stay on, but some had families they wished to get back to, and others had obligations just as he did. His request to be free of this obligation had just been the final act of their end – and as such, he would not be returning to the Guardians.

He had known that once he returned to Konoha, he would be returned to active mission duty as Konoha’s forces were still recovering even almost six years after the Kyuubi Attack and the decimation of a quarter of their standing force. It had only been by his father’s grace as Hokage that he’d been given leave to even go after the immediate repairs and reconstruction had finished after the Attack. When he had answered the missive he had known that he wouldn’t have the grace to do so again, not when it further tested the Council’s patience after the two wayward Sannin.)

His father had also deemed it fit to mention that Ren’s daughter, a sweet little girl he remembered having a shock of pink hair when he’d last seen her as a babe, was orphaned, without a clan to take her in. That while her aunt and uncle would be returning to Konoha from their traveling as far-flung merchants to care for her, they would not back for another six months at best.

(He had known that his father wanted him to take her in for that time – and he nearly refused on basis that it would be playing into the hands of a Hokage he struggled to trust even if he was his father – but he had long ago volunteered for that duty at her birth.

He remembered the girl that his father had practically adopted and who would cheekily address him as Ojii-sama, calling his old man the grandfather of the whole village, and who was now _gone_. Who had left behind a little girl that he’d promised to watch over if her mother had ever died before him – and he’d made that promise thinking that there was no way it would happen, barring another Attack, that she’d supposed to have been _safe_ in the village, while he was the one that flirted with death, who’d already seen the death of so many friends and family that he’d been courting it with open arms only to be denied every time.)

His affairs were in order and he’d been ready to leave, unable to see any other option but to come home and to take care of Sakura.

(It didn’t mean the thought of Konoha being _home_ without Ren to welcome him back with a smile and tearful eyes, to punch him in the arm as she lectured him on how he’d made her wait, dragging him by the ear to a yakisoba stand where she would ply him with food and tales of what he’d missed before she’d let him report to the Sandaime, wasn’t painful.

Even if he’d been putting off returning, Konoha had never stopped being _home_ with Ren there.

Now it just felt _wrong_ to call it that without her.)

It didn’t make it easier when he stepped back through the Gates of Konoha for the first time in over five years. Nor any easier to face his father, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, to formally get accepted back into the ranks of Konoha shinobi, reinstated as a jounin.

(It had been like he’d looking for ghosts.

Unable to help looking around corners and above his head, listening for the sound of a familiar voice, for a person who couldn’t come.

He’d become familiar with the feeling after the Third Shinobi War, after the loss of two of his older brothers and both his sensei and one of his genin-teammates, when he’d kept thinking he’d find them again. It didn’t mean it ever got any easier – but he’d never thought that Ren would be one of his ghosts, not after she’d requested to be primarily village-bound with the birth of her daughter.

She had been the only reason why he’d stayed as long as he had after the war was over, the last of his important people, the only one he’d allowed close when he’d been afraid to let anyone get close again just to lose them.

Without her, he didn’t know how he was going to be able to stay – but he would try for her daughter.

It was the least he owed her.)

Lighting up another cigarette as he left the Hokage Tower, he’d meandered through the streets of Konoha, taking in all the sights and everything that had changed in his absence, while making his way toward the Orphanage to properly meet his goddaughter.

Passing the Archives was on a whim – as his father had said that there was a good chance he would find Sakura there at this time of day – he didn’t think he would be witness to a very successful operation run by a pair of children not quite pre-genin.

He heard a sparrow’s song, before a pink-haired dark blue blur leaped down from above the entrance to the Archives, from behind its sign in the shadows. Saw what he vaguely recognized as a pink-haired version of a child Ren, set some type of trap at the entrance before dashing inside.

(He froze at the sight of her.

Almost let his cigarette slip from between his lips at the sight of a ghost, nearly calling out, _“Ren!”_.)

She was in there for a couple of minutes – enough time for him to recover, to shake himself free from that dream – before there was an awful screech from inside, followed by an echoing high-pitched, pushed too far, “ _YOOUU!!!!_ ”

Sakura raced back out, a wide smirk on her face, darting into the crowd that had begun to gather after hearing the first screech, before a chuunin he didn’t recognize dashed out of the Archives after her, only to trip over a wire at the doorway, making a bucket of mud fall from just above the entrance.

While the chuunin stood there spluttering in range and covered in mud, a kunai was thrown to pierce a sack that had been hanging rather innocently from just beneath the sign above her.

He watched with some amusement as the bag burst open and various feathers, leaves, and even some type of animal fur, rained down on the mud-covered chuunin.

(He could remember Ren pulling a similar prank to this on their jounin sensei, wanting to see if he was any good.

He could remember how she’d pouted when their sensei had stepped easily over the tripwire and his deadpan voice that he expected _better_.)

That was when the chuunin seemed to snap, screaming at one of the people in the crowd, a girl with wide dark blue eyes and long crimson hair standing next to a blonde boy with whisker-like marks on his cheeks – and it was like a slap across the face how much the two eerily looked like the deceased Yondaime and his wife, “I know you’ve been screwing with me for months now!”, before she was lunging toward them.

The girl’s face flickered with a falsely-innocent ‘who me?’ expression before her eyes widened slightly at the kunai in the chuunin’s hand. Then her eyes narrowed angrily as she pushed the blonde aside and out of the way.

(It was like stepping back in time to see someone else long gone as a child – he’d been young when he’d first seen Kushina, her hair blazing like fire around her head as she yelled while chasing after someone, but he remembered.

He remembered how Ren had stars in her eyes for days after, exclaiming that she wanted to be just like ‘Kushina-hime’.)

Asuma was pushing his way through the crowd towards them after the chuunin had started screaming, sensing the impending violence, and had nearly been in front of the two kids when a pair of masked ANBU were suddenly there, knocking the chuunin down and restraining her.

He nodded in thanks to Cat and Hound, when the girl, her lip curling up slightly in anger as her eyes flashed dangerously, squatted down in front of the chuunin, grasping at her filthy hair to pull her face up and off the ground so that she had to look her in the eye, hissing out lowly, “I was fine with just pranking you for doing a terrible job here at my mother’s pride and joy. Then I overheard you today lamenting the fact that Kumo didn’t kill me when I disappeared a few days ago. I hope T&I has _fun_ with you.”

She bent closer, lips twisting up high on either cheek in a manner that made him think _Kyuubi_ , saying just loud enough that she, the two ANBU, and him, heard but no one else, “I could have just reported what I had overheard to Ojii-sama, but you threatened Naruto on the street yesterday. I figured it was _appropriate_ that the wrath of ‘Uzumaki Kushina’ be felt for that.”

(Asuma had the eerie premonition then that Sakura had gained all of Ren’s smarts and predilection for traps with her very own vicious streak, while channeling Kushina’s prankster nature. He didn’t want to think about what she would be capable of when she had the power to back up that vicious streak appropriately, when it was directed at those that had dared to harm in some way those she cared for.

Not when he remembered Ren’s own vicious streak, and how she’d treated their jounin sensei for _years_ because of _one_ offhand, unkind comment about kunoichi, while also telling the other kunoichi of the comment and then sitting back to let them beat it into him how kunoichi were _not weak_.

Not when he suspected that she’d purposely made the kunoichi snap now after months of low-grade torment for threatening Naruto, and had orchestrated it so that it was ANBU taking the woman down for her.

He would not be surprised if she ended up in the Bingo Book before she was fifteen, and considered at least an A-rank threat upon said entry into the Book.)

He did not see how still the two ANBU went after hearing Sakura say Kushina’s name, at her knowing of Kushina and the implication she knew who Naruto’s parents were with that little _display_ there with Naruto, tens of memories coming to the mind of Hound of what the _real_ Kushina would have done when her baby was threatened.

(They would be watching her closely now for this.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Start of the former chapter three: Curling Smoke Sheltering Blooming Flowers


	23. Family is Not Just Blood

After Sakura had returned to her normal coloring amidst Naruto’s loud exclamations of awe and admiration for his friend, she had turned viridian green eyes identical in shape and color to her mother’s on the young twenty-two-year-old shinobi that lingered next to them.

Her eyes flicked up and down him, taking in his standard black long-sleeved shirt and pants tied with bandages around his fore-arms and wrists, and ankles, and his black sandals, his jounin flak jacket and Konoha hitai-ate, and the white cloth tied around his waist off to one side with the bold red kanji for fire. His tan skin and dark spiky hair and short goatee with his dark eyes were familiar to her; it took but seconds for her to draw the similarities to the Sandaime, making it clear that he was also a Sarutobi, but there was something more.

She had seen a picture of a younger him, without the goatee, somewhere.

It took a moment for it to click as having been a picture of her mother’s genin team, “Sarutobi-san, do you need something?”

His cigarette twitched as if he started to say something that he quickly shut down before he awkwardly scratched at the back of his head and started again, “You are Sakura-chan, right? I knew your mother when we were younger.”

She raised a single eyebrow with a flat look, looking eerily like Itachi for a few moments, “You were on her genin team, weren’t you, Sarutobi-san.”. She didn’t wait for him to answer before continuing, starting to walk down the street with both Naruto and the man following, the former without thinking of doing so, “Kaa-san said that after the Kyuubi Attack, you got into a fight with Ojii-sama about him taking back the position of Sandaime at his age, and you stormed out of Konoha like a child. She said that Ojii-sama managed to get you assigned on a vague long-term mission with no return date, that she outlined and he paid for with his own money, so that you wouldn’t be declared a missing-nin. She knew that you would come back when you were ready to be a grown-up again.”

He sweat-dropped at hearing her repeat her mother’s words, honestly not surprised that Ren had said such things about him, nor that she’d consistently insult him while doing so. He did pause for a moment at hearing that his long absence had been explained away as a long-term mission, one that had been paid out of pocket by his father and drafted by her mother.

She shrugged as she led them through several alleyways in a shorter route towards the Orphanage, “She said it was a very good thing that you managed to join the Guardians of Fire, because protecting the Daimyo was perhaps the only thing that you could have done that the Daimyo would not have signed on off for making you a missing-nin regardless of her efforts. If she hadn’t died, she would have dragged you back by your hair by now, had been making plans in fact; Kaa-san was _not_ pleased with you _at all_ for missing the birth of your nephew Konohamaru.”

He desperately tried to not pale at the ‘would have dragged you back by your hair’ because he knew Ren, and while the woman wouldn’t have said such to her six-year-old daughter, the woman had _not_ meant the hair on his head or face.

Or chest.

Despite the fact he wasn’t entirely successful in keeping his color, he regretted not coming back earlier now; he would have given anything for just one more moment with Ren, even if it meant that he _was_ dragged halfway across Hi no Kuni by his hair, just so he could thank her for having done this for him, for having had his back all these years.

(She didn’t need to say anything more about how the Council, more specifically the greater part of the Council that were mostly civilians – not the clan heads and various heads of the important parts of Konoha – had been getting _twitchy_ about his long absence, memories of Orochimaru still fresh in their minds.

That he had the fact that he _could_ come back – alive, and not considered a traitor – only because of her mother and his father.

He would have to thank both, one in person and one in spirit, for ensuring he could come back.)

They stopped outside the Orphanage, and Asuma fiddled with his cigarette for a moment as he tried to find the words he’d wanted to say to her, “Sakura-chan? Would you . . like to come live with me until your aunt and uncle get back to Konoha?”, feeling more and more awkward the longer Sakura, and by extension Naruto – who had lingered next her unwilling to leave, particularly after the _misadventure_ a few days before where he’d been near but too far to know he’d been needed – stared at him when he’d not left immediately after they had gotten there.

(The fact that he had nearly seventeen years on her and felt all of _four_ was something he was starting to think was hereditary, because Ren had had the same look on whenever he’d done something _particularly_ stupid in her eyes. A feeling that was further enhanced when just like her mother, she’d cocked her hip and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow demandingly at him while looking long-suffering.

It was almost nice to see that look again – though he missed the fond look that had settled into Ren’s eyes after a few years of friendship.)

She broke the one-sided staring contest by blinking, then flatly said, “No,”, and turned to enter the Orphanage without a second look.

He blinked, mouth opening and closing a few times before he found the word he wanted, “Why?”

Sakura looked over her shoulder, pointedly flicking her eyes to the blonde next to her, “I don’t know you. I would be better off here.”

He understood what her unspoken terms were, “There would be nothing forcing you to be there when you don’t want to be. You could leave anytime you wanted. Have your friends over as long as I have some warning. Just . . let me get to know you, please.”, and accepted them, as long as she gave him the chance to get to know the daughter of his precious friend, preferably while getting her out of the Orphanage. He wanted to do his best to do right by her.

Her eyes scrutinized him for a long moment, wanting to get to know the man her mother had talked about just as much as she had her father – had loved just as much as her father in a slightly different way – but she had no real memories of him and was inclined to be cautious. Particularly after the debacle of her mother’s coworker being not incompetent, but a traitor.

(She had thought that after a direct refusal, that he would at the most, press for simply meeting with her for a handful of hours here and there, to say that he’d tried when their meetings inevitably tottered out after a couple of months. And after seeing how much the village seemed to hate Naruto, tried to forbid her friendship with him, she would not accept him asking her to leave Naruto behind even if it meant leaving the Orphanage and getting to know one of her mother’s friends and mourning together.

That he would turn around and basically offer free reign of his home, and to Naruto as well because she was determined to make them a package deal, as long as she was with him and he knew of it, was something that she’d not thought he’d over. Particularly not so quickly, nor with the edge of desperation she could see in his eyes – as if it would destroy him a little inside if she refused to have anything to do with him.)

She gave a short nod, accepting his offer.

(She didn’t have the heart to be able to refuse this when she was sure that the desperation was his guilt at not being there for her mother these last few years as he thought that he should have, his guilt for not talking with her mother one more time. Not when she could remember her mother saying that they’d been family, and family doesn’t leave another to heartbreak.)

He smiled then – almost shyly as if he hadn’t really thought he would get this – thanking her for giving him this chance.

(She could see why her mother had loved his smile, why she had loved _him_.)


	24. Asuma Interlude II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, despite the manga being primarily from Naruto's point of view, it's really difficult to get into Naruto's headspace? I've spent a good part of the last week trying to rewrite a scene more from Naruto's POV, and oh-my-Sage, it just did not want to write.  
> However, last night I got it, and am fairly satisfied with it. To celebrate - another chapter!

After having gotten her acceptance to live with him for the next six months, Asuma had realized that he had no place to live.

He _knew_ that he could move back into the Sarutobi compound like his eldest surviving brother had after he’d married, but for all that he’d come to a (fragile) understanding with his father (mostly because Ren would have been pissed that they were still fighting and neither had liked her mad at them), he still thought his feelings about his father taking up the position of Hokage again at his age were no less valid and he couldn’t bring himself to live in a place that his father should spend more time himself to get to know his grandson, but wouldn’t. His father had understood that while they may be talking again, he still needed his space, and thus had helped him get an apartment.

As it was bare of all but the essential furnishings, he’d had to go buy a spare futon and basic cookware right away.

When he’d picked Sakura up from the Orphanage as soon as that was squared away, she’d inspected his apartment like if there had been just _one_ thing wrong, she’d leave and not come back. He’d just watched her, unable to do anything but think that she was just like her mother so long ago, and felt nostalgic.

(He had almost been able to hear Ren in his ear as he had gone through the apartment and remembered when he’d previously gotten apartments, with Ren poking around, sticking her nose everywhere, shuffling about and pointing out where he should hide kunai – and to see her daughter do the same, poking around and looking satisfied whenever she found one of his weapons, it had made Ren’s absence all the more notable – all the more painful.)

After she was done, she’d lifted a corner of one of the two futons, raised an eyebrow at him and pointedly smacked it hard with the flat of her hand, which made a cloud of dust come from it. He’d winced at his lack of thought there – just in such a rush to _have_ everything he thought he needed that he hadn’t really _looked_ at any of it – as she turned to the kitchen and pointed out what he hadn’t realized he’d forgotten, “Where’s your rice cooker?”.

An embarrassed flush nearly came to his cheeks before he’d seen the amused glitter in her eyes, and when he saw that he’d noticed, she’d laughed, “Kaa-san had made a bet with Ojii-sama that when you came back, that you would still lack basic cooking skills, and would forget to air out your futon.”. His cheeks turned a little red at hearing that Ren had tagged him right, and if he’d been any less mature, he might have pouted a little.

(Sakura would recount for _years_ after this, that _yes, he’d pouted_.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, since each previous-version's-chapters have a set of interludes in a different POV, I know which POV is next - but would anyone want them to occasionally re-appear?  
> I mean Shisui's POV is coming back regardless in another set, but outside of that?  
> Any other POV - not already done - anyone want to show up additionally?


	25. Meal at Ichiraku's

By the end of the day, they’d gotten that rice cooker and aired the two futons out properly, then gone out to eat at Ichiraku’s.

Naruto had pulled a loud disappearing act on the premise that it was getting close to curfew – and he needed to check in to explain he wouldn’t be staying the night – but to order him some of any, he’d be there quick as a flash.

(He hadn’t seen the flinch Asuma gave at that phrasing, but Sakura had.)

Asuma had closed his eyes briefly at tasting the goodness that was Ichiraku ramen again, as they were still the _best_ ramen he’d tasted in all of Fire Country, and he’d yet to find one that came even _close_ to rivaling them.

Next to him, Sakura had started on her own miso ramen, pretending to not see the supposed ‘adult’ at her side have a _moment_ with his ramen, honestly not surprised because her mother had had letters after letters from him talking about how, out of curiosity, he’d gone to other ramen stands, and never found one that rivaled Ichiraku’s. They’d apparently proceeded to make a bet that he wouldn’t find one that did – and they took their friendly bets _very_ seriously as it was a mainstay from their genin days, in honor of their third teammate – but he hadn’t, if his _moment_ now meant anything.

(She’d raised an eyebrow when he’d had the grace to look over at her, before blushing, and he’d mumbled into his next bowl that he’d fulfill his end of the bet in the morning to Ren.)

She’d nearly completed her first bowl when he brought up events of a few days prior, “I heard you mention Kushina-chan’s name, where did you learn it?”. Her eyes flickered over to him for a moment, as he didn’t appear upset, perhaps even _curious_ if she was reading him right, about how she knew the name before she slowly responded, deciding that he wasn’t likely to respond badly to this knowledge that felt like something close to a secret, “Shisui-san and Hatake-san mentioned that Mikoto-sama gained her place as Uchiha Matriarch based off of skill, and that if an Obito-san had proposed to a Rin-san, that between the two women, a revolution would have started among the Uchiha, and that Kushina would have gleefully spread it out to the rest of the village while Hana-san would have eagerly helped them.”

He blinked a couple of times, as he had been expecting her to say something along the lines of her having come across a mention of her in a scroll in the Archives, from Ren, from his father, but not _that_ , then blanched at the idea the two men had summed up, having _no_ doubts that between the combination of Mikoto and Kushina, that such a revolution would have been _easily_ possible.

(Sakura found his reaction _fascinating_ ; she was very pleased to have found more contemporary figures that fathered such respect, as while the Founders were still her _heroes_ , Kushina and Mikoto were clearly worth looking further into. The Uchiha Matriarch would be harder to get information on, just considering how tight-lipped the Uchiha were, but Kushina might not be so difficult. That she was an Uzumaki, and clearly related to Naruto and Mito had been enough for her to start gathering information on her already, but _this_ type of reaction made it all the more _intriguing_.

It made her wonder what type of kunoichi inspired such fearful respect that even dead – dead by several _years_ at that – ANBU spooked at the mention of her wrath, that just the _idea_ of her involved made all things possible, like no one would be surprised that she would make the impossible possible.

Whatever difficulties there may be to gaining more information on Kushina, Sakura _would_ be finding out as much as she possibly could on the woman, relation – mother or not – to Naruto aside, because Kushina was _clearly_ somebody to idolize.)

She thought that Asuma might even be able to offer some insight – confirm one way or another Kushina’s relation to Naruto – “I know she was related to Naruto, and Hatake-san alluded to the fact that the ANBU are still scared of her wrath, but I don’t know much more. Can you tell me a little?”. Choosing to blatantly not mention that she _had_ found that Kushina had married the Yondaime – and through some _still_ A-rank records she _was not_ supposed to be _anywhere_ near – that she’d been pregnant prior to October 10 th, due to give birth around then, that date of her death, and considering that Naruto was practically the Yondaime’s clone – even if she hadn’t just seen Asuma flinch at the mention of _flash_ and Naruto darting off – her suspicions lay in that those two had been his parents. If Asuma could just _confirm_ that for her, that would be _splendid_ ; it would allow her to tell Naruto confidently that he should be so _proud_ of his parents, that he should never let the Village treat him like the bastard son of a pair of infamous traitors and monsters, because he was the scion of an ancient clan and the closest thing to a shinobi village’s royalty and had _nothing_ to be ashamed about.

He took a moment to eat a little more, obviously thinking over what he _could_ say, sure after her little _performance_ that she must have had her suspicions, “Kushina-chan was his mother, a kunoichi that made it into the Bingo Book as the ‘Hot-Blooded Habanero’, considered to be A-rank by the start of the third war. Being an Uzumaki, her fuuinjutsu was master-level, and qualified her as a tokubetsu jounin, with her traps remaining rather infamous here in Konoha considering how many times she pranked people.”

He leaned over her way a bit to whisper even while just appearing to huddle closer over his ramen to anyone looking, “For all her skill, which was not inconsiderable, she had a bit of a temper. There was more than one time she’d pranked the Council for being ‘old windbags who just liked to hear themselves talk’ when they pissed her off. Only once do I know of a time when the ANBU actively tried to stop her in a prank – in retaliation, she managed to locate and infiltrate their headquarters and redecorated every ANBU mask there. Rumors has it, she’d had help, but if they did, they’ve kept that secret. Apparently, people are still finding these masks years later, and are left with white face paint on under the masks, or black raccoon masks around their eyes, when they take them off.”

(Sakura made a note to remember that prank, perhaps in the _far_ future to even try and follow an ANBU back to their headquarters and do up some fresh masks like that, if the ANBU did something not-good in the future, to put some _fresh_ fear of _Kushina_ in them.)

Despite that she _really_ wanted to follow up with the question of if it was that the ANBU were still scared of Kushina for why they watched over Naruto, or it that was because he was the Yondaime’s son – as there was still a massive bounty from Iwa for the Yellow Flash despite him being nearly seven years dead – she knew that would get her an immediate trip to either the head of Torture and Interrogation, Sandaime, or the captain-commander of the ANBU, about being able to identify when ANBU were present. The fact that she had counted on their presence a few days ago in her prank had already ensured that their eyes would be on her for some time.

(She was about eighty percent sure that there was one now – but she didn’t want to try and check and alert him that she knew he was there. _That_ would take a few weeks/months’ surveillance and turn it into a private meeting with an ANBU that she _really did not want_.)

She was eating her ramen when Asuma glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, “That transformation jutsu you did, was excellent. If you had done that when Kushina-chan had been a child, it would have been very difficult to tell you two apart based on appearances.”

(Sakura couldn’t help preening a little at the compliment, as she’d been practicing that jutsu for several weeks. She had _just_ managed to suppress the puff of chakra smoke that came with the transformation, not to mention she had made an educated guess on what Kushina had _actually_ looked like, particularly at that age, as she’d yet to get to her profile data in the Hokage Tower.)

He continued after a moment of drinking his broth, able to see how she preened even if she was hiding it, recognizing how she’d straightened and hid her smile behind her chopsticks just like her mother used to do, “Did you master that jutsu just to do pranks like that, to get a head start on your future classmates, or was there more of a purpose?”.

He watched on how, without looking, she waved over Teuchi for the udon ramen with little fishcakes she’d had him hold onto, then put a foot down to brace the stool next to her, just as Naruto rocketed inside with a smile, “That was quick, right, Sakura-chan!”, leap-frogging onto the tall stool that somehow didn’t rock forward with all the force, “Quick as a rabbit.”. Naruto’s smile broadened at the sight of the ramen, using his joined chopsticks to spear one of the fishcakes, “You got me, _me_!”, before munching on it as he snapped his chopsticks, “ _Itadakimasu_!”, and dug in.

She ruffled blonde hair fondly as she answered him, thinking of the ten or so pranks Naruto and her had come up with that were now possible if she mastered how just to be taller, of how she’d originally learned it because it was one of the three E-rank jutsu pre-genin needed to know near-perfectly to graduate from the Academy, “I’ve always wanted to get into the Academy. My peers are going to be clan kids, and I’m basically a civilian in their eyes, I wanted to not be _too_ far behind when I start.”.

Naruto grinned as he loudly slurped his broth, “Sakura-chan wants to be the best! To stand the equal of her heroes!”, cheering when Sakura waved another over for him.

The corner of her lips curled up a little in an almost-smirk, as she had a more immediate plan for that jutsu.

(She had seen the abysmal way most of the villagers treated Naruto, and one way or another, she would get them to stop treating him like a monster when he was just a beautiful soul.)

Asuma _remembered_ when her mother had smirked like that, and couldn’t help the shudder that went down his spine at seeing the same glitter in her eyes, and _almost_ felt sorry for whoever had earned her ire _,_ except that he didn’t doubt that they had earned it _truly_. They were shinobi, so their morality was a little skewed, but most of them had a code to live by, and wouldn’t _do_ the type of retaliation that glitter had meant unless it _crossed lines_.

He looked longingly down at his empty bowl, before waving for another, deciding that for the sake of his sanity, he would ignore the smirk and the glitter, so that he could truthfully deny knowledge of whatever mischief she would surely be getting up to shortly when he was asked. He just hoped that he wouldn’t be pulled in on it.

Asuma laid some money down on the counter, before looking at the two children who’d been waiting for him to finish his second bowl, blinking when he saw that Naruto had four empty bowls stacked next to him, another two from Sakura. The blonde had a wide content grin as he leaned over Sakura’s shoulder as she twirled a chopstick over her fingers back and forth, “That’s so cool Sakura-chan!”.

He smiled at them, “Come on, let’s go home.”, and they were quick to scramble to their feet, returning the smile as they waved at Teuchi and his daughter, “Arigato, Ji-ji! Ayame-nee!”.

(He didn’t see the indulgent look on Teuchi’s face as he watched them – watched Naruto – leave.)


	26. Asuma Interlude III

The sun wasn’t up yet, and even Kakashi wasn’t there at the Memorial Stone.

Asuma was.

Partially out of a sense of long-forgotten embarrassment and he didn’t want any witnesses. Partially because this was private, meant for Ren’s eyes only – and in substitution of doing this for Ren in person, he would do this in front of her name on the Stone.

(Not that he didn’t have an audience. He just was unaware of it.

Sakura had woken at his exit, and had followed after dampening her chakra signature as far as she could.)

He had burned some incense for her with a moment of silence, and began the “Ramen Dance”.

Over and over, he made an invisible bowl of ramen, adding toppings, spices, _fishcake_ , doing over-exaggerated eating and slurping motions.

(All while Sakura stared wide-eyed, pinching her arm once – twice – thrice, because she couldn’t believe her eyes.

It was hilarious to see an adult make a fool of themselves.

She also may have been taking notes of what he did – trying to decide if it would be more of a _hilarious_ or a _bad_ idea to teach it to Naruto.)

It was only once he’d done the demanded fifteen repetitions, did he stop, sitting down in front of the Stone and starting to talk – to tell Ren about the things he hadn’t sent her letters about, about meeting Sakura, and Naruto.

(Sakura left him to this private moment.

To go and blitz-tag Shisui.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I'm not making up this ramen dance.  
> Google for "Destiny 2 Spicy Ramen Dance" - and that is what I'm detailing Asuma did. It's a minute of amusing.


	27. Learning to Co-habitate

They learned to co-habituate.

They learned that Asuma tended to stay up late smoking, watching the night skyline as some lights went out and others came on, shinobi went out on missions and others returned home. That Sakura got up early to start basic exercises meant to strengthen her body, enjoying the feel of the sunlight casting across her bare feet up to her face. That Naruto liked to perch on the guard rail of his balcony in the early morning as the day began, watering little plants that Asuma had no idea where they came from as he chattered at Sakura.

That Asuma preferred to train with the silver-haired man Sakura would share early morning visits at the Memorial Stone with when he was in town. That Sakura kicked the half-awake Asuma out of the kitchen the third time he went to brew himself tea and put in salt instead of sugar to make them breakfast, handing him his tea while sipping on her own, then slipped a snack in his pockets to eat after training. That Naruto would train after they ate with Sakura by snagging her half-finished tea and having her chase him across the apartment, falling into squabbles that were almost spars if they were more refined as they did. That Asuma regularly had to intervene in when Sakura had had enough, decided fair was fair, grabbed one of Naruto’s plants and walked up the wall to crouch on the ceiling holding it, and Naruto would leave scorch marks on the walls – sometimes also blowing holes in the walls – when he tried to follow after her.

That Sakura spent most of her afternoons drifting through the village, listening to what the villagers were saying and weren’t saying. That Asuma took a couple of D-rank missions to get back into the swing of things while she did. That Naruto spent those afternoons in the back of Ichiraku, washing dishes for Teuchi to earn a little pocket-change.

That in the evenings before dinner, Asuma would take them out to the training grounds and work them through more body conditioning, which more often than not led to Naruto and Sakura conspiring to try and take his smokes and lead him on a merry chase through the village back home for dinner.

That Naruto was good with finances, keeping track of his little bit of change, and the little Sakura had saved, with Asuma’s mission pay. That Sakura knew how to stretch their funds, bargaining and haggling with merchants over food, coming back each time with more than enough for half of what Asuma would have gotten. That Asuma kept the little apartment clean where every day Naruto brought in more plants and had quickly filled his balcony, tracking dirt and pooling water in his wake, trimmed leaves and branches scattered around like a small whirlwind had got caught inside; where every day Sakura cooked and cleaned her dishes but left them on the counter after she lost his stepstool to Naruto’s plants, left books and scrolls scattered all over the kitchen table, a thousand notes and half-formed scribbles laying around from ideas and thoughts written down then forgotten.

That Naruto was the best at stitching up tears and darning holes. That Sakura was good at hemming and adjusting and padding older clothes to fit and work for them. That Asuma could knit and in the evenings, would wind down after dinner working on one project or another while Sakura explained one concept or another to Naruto that she’d learned or Naruto told stories about some of his pranks and how he’d set them up.

That Asuma would leave his clothes all over the bathroom. That Sakura would round up all of their loose clothes and start to wash them, for Naruto to finish, that they folded and put away while planning one prank or another, snickering at how Asuma would half-heartedly protest that he could do his own laundry when they all knew he regularly did a sniff test to decide what was clean and wasn’t otherwise.

A month later, he accepted a C-rank escort mission when he couldn’t put off that D-ranks just didn’t pay enough for three to live off and the Council kept pushing to see him take a mission of actual appropriate level for his standing as a jounin.

Sakura saw him off to the Gates with Naruto, her eyes sharp even as she smiled at him, holding out a lunch he was forced to take or have squashed when she hugged him good-bye, whispering into his shirt, “Don’t you dare die.”

(It wasn’t until later that day that he realized that she’d pick-pocketed his smokes.

It had made him laugh to see she’d left a box of pocky in its place, even when he’d _not_ -pouted at the three cigarettes he’d stashed half-forgotten in his weapons pouch that he’d tried to drag out over the mission.)


	28. Naruto Interlude I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto's viewpoint!
> 
> You would not believe the trouble he gave me during this. For the manga following him so much, you would think it would be easier to get into his voice, but i/nooooooo/.

While Asuma was out on that first escort mission, Naruto had asked Sakura to cut his hair – and she’d decided to cut her own hair while she was at it.

(She hadn’t wanted to ask Asuma to cut their hair, when as a profession, ninja didn’t get their hair cut by anyone other than trusted comrades, if they didn’t do it themselves. While she was starting to trust him enough to ask, she wasn’t sure how _he_ would react to being asked.)

He _liked_ his hair as short spikes, unruly as Sakura sometimes called it.

(Sakura liked how it looked just a bit longer, at how _sleek_ it got with a bit of weight – not to mention all the double-takes villagers did because the hairstyle made him look even _more_ like the Yondaime – but she was also partial to the spikes herself. It was an undeniably _Naruto_ hairstyle.)

So, he’d asked her, and she’d done so with a smile and a giggle. He’d been smiling, completely relaxed with a kunai in her hand as she trimmed his hair.

(Sakura had been unable to help her giggles at the rogue thought of how the haircut made his head look like his namesake, unable to stop even when he’d whined and begged to know what she thought funny.)

Then she’d passed him the kunai and asked him to trim everything but her bangs to chin-length.

He’d frozen for a moment, because he didn’t _really_ understand why he’d only had his hair trimmed by the Sandaime himself but he knew there was a reason. An important reason.

She’d turned her head to look over her shoulder at him when he didn’t start, and smiled, “I trust you, Naruto.”

His chin had wobbled and he’d dropped the knife to tackle her, “Sakura-chan!”, because he _understood_ she wasn’t just talking about cutting her hair – she was trusting him with a _lot_ more.

Sakura had hugged him back just as tight, and he didn’t need to understand what she was murmuring into his hair to know what she was saying.

_I trust you with my life._

_I love you._

_You are my family._

He understood because it was what he felt for her.

Eventually, she pried him over her and got him to cut her hair – then trimmed her bangs.

She’d giggled after she’d finished, as she’d put the kunai away; as she’d realized that if she’d just had Naruto cut the rest of her hair a bit more, _she’d_ have the Yondaime’s haircut.

Then she’d dragged him out to the shopping district for newer clothes.

They’d found a number of shirts with a very familiar spiral on the front, and Sakura had gotten that very familiar look on her face that proclaimed she _would_ be getting things her way, before she’d bought them all.

Naruto had just looked at the prominent red spiral and knew it felt _right_ to wear it – and smiled happily as he tugged one on, “Thanks, Sakura-chan!”.

(Sakura had felt as pleased as the cat that got the cream to see Naruto wearing _his_ clan kamon – _and_ mostly in black, with one orange one, and a couple of darker pants to go with.)

He was too busy admiring the spiral to see how Sakura’s eyes had glittered harshly as she haggled with a merchant, to hear the poisoned honey quality of her voice as she argued for a pair of sleepwear to be thrown in for the price he was insisting at.

He’d looked over when Sakura had chuckled at something, before she’d lifted it up to show him it.

He’d seen the walrus sleeping hat and immediately loved it, smiling as he reached out to try it on, wearing it as he hugged her, “This is so _cool_ , Sakura-chan!”.

She’d sighed, but her eyes had been smiling, “Dattebayo, Naruto,”, and he’d broken out snickering at _her_ saying that. He’d grinned as he’d nodded, “Shannaro!”, and she’d laughed.

He loved to hear her laugh, particularly as her eyes glittered brightly and her cheeks flushed as she smiled, because she went from _beautiful_ in his eyes, to _absolutely stunning_. Happiness was a good look on her, and he wanted to see her happy; it was even better if _he_ was the cause of her happiness.

She’d found herself a simple red, short-sleeved kimono top that came down to just above her knees, and a pair of white mid-calf pants, as Naruto tried to convince her to let him get a bright orange jumpsuit. That he proceeded to lug around as he tried to convince Sakura of its sheer awesomeness.

He’d tried every trick – that it was his favorite color, that its coolness was blinding (of which Sakura had been unable to help herself from muttering, “it is _very_ blinding”).

Sakura had just managed to get them two pairs of white tabi and straw waraji in their size, haggling to half-off the discounted price, when there had been a loud yell of “Eternal Rival!”.

They’d blinked, and there had been a blur of a man in a bright green one-piece skin-tight jumpsuit, wearing a Konoha hitai-ate around his waist.

He’d immediately whirled, pointed in the direction of the tall muscled man, and clutched his jumpsuit, “He’s just as bright as this jumpsuit and _he’s_ a ninja Sakura-chan!”.

Sakura didn’t even seem to hear him, eyes wide and not blinking as she stared after the man, “How . . _why_ . . ??”, before his words seemed to register.

He was very careful to not snicker at the pout on her face, “Sonova-”, as she saw his point.

He very much did cheer as she’d slammed her money down with a glare at the vendor that had sold the jumpsuit, before grabbing her hand and dragging her back towards Asuma’s apartment clutching the jumpsuit.

And that was how, four days after he’d left on a week-long mission, Asuma returned to Konoha and saw them at the Gate, blinking a couple of times at the bright orange jumpsuit Naruto was wearing, before smiling and ruffling Sakura’s hair.

Then asked for his smokes back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so begins the former chapter four, twenty-four chapters later in the revised version. At a solid additional ten pages more in Word by this point.
> 
> We're at 58-61 if anyone's wondering.
> 
> [A Wild Gai anyone?]


	29. Blossoming Shinobi

Her mother, once, she’d first expressed that she’d wanted to be a kunoichi like her, had started her on very basic _shinren_ and _tairen_.

She’d been trying to work on being more observant and aware, on being aware of more minute details and if they changed beyond what she’d considered, trying to remain calm under pressure; trying to respond more instinctively to adapt to changing circumstances.

(In that, knowing Naruto was a major benefit. It became a game, hiding out on some perch above streets and picking out details of passer-by. Sometimes he missed _really_ obvious things, but other times, he _caught_ details she’d _never_ _think_ to look for.

He also was really good at knowing who was trying to get information – who was working a job on somebody. He taught her a lot of the little cues people did when trying to seduce for any reason – and how to recognize when they were being used.

Naruto was also highly unpredictable – any time they went against each other in anything, she never knew how he would go about for something. There was not a single rhyme or reason to any of his strategies; he had just as good chances going head-on as he would actually pull off a jounin-level subterfuge, and she gave herself headaches trying to predict which was more likely up until he was already doing so. Sakura doubted even a Nara could properly predict _how_ Naruto would do something; _why_ usually wasn’t hard – Naruto was fairly straight-forward in motives, and was fairly simple to figure out after a short acquaintance.)

Asuma added to that, giving her a little instruction towards different exercises and body-conditioning to build on what her mother had taught her, that would boost her strength, her endurance, her speed, and her agility. He’d been supervising what she’d been doing in the mornings before she went to visit the Memorial Stone – more often than not joining her – and giving her little tips on how to improve.

After the third day in a row when he’d gone off on a mission a day’s distance to Konoha and back, only to come back to find that she’d managed to turn half the apartment into a mess of research and theories covering every surface, and Naruto had gotten another plant for their balcony, he’d realized leaving the two unsupervised like he had, wasn’t perhaps the _best_ idea.

(He full-heartedly claimed it was for all of their safety when Sakura got _tetchy_ about anyone touching her mess of disorganized, scribbled notes and without blinking, _stabbed him in the hand_ for trying to shift it aside so he could start on food when it seemed she’d gotten distracted making breakfast; And as Naruto had been well on his way to creating a mini Area 44 _on the balcony_ after he managed to get his hands on a carnivorous plant _that tried to eat **him**_ – not _Naruto_.)

So, he’d begun taking them on D-rank missions – about one a day was all he could get after he’d been promoted to C-rank without having a genin team, though even then he couldn’t always get them but always with his pick of the choices for arriving before any of them, and he didn’t feel comfortable taking them with on anything but a D-rank.

(He wasn’t the White Fang; he didn’t have the confidence to take a small child with him on missions like he had with a young Kakashi. It didn’t matter that the C-rank missions would have the barest bits of danger – the possibility of bandits – and that realistically, they’d be _fine_. The thought of taking them into that situation – even while knowing that after hearing of Sakura’s _misadventure_ , that they would more than likely prove completely competent in taking care of themselves – didn’t sit right with him.

He wasn’t the White Fang, last of the Hatake, without anyone to care for a young infant. The same situation where they were estranged from family because of a technically unauthorized leave of absence but are caring for (a) young child(ren) while their only means of making money is missions, yes, but he wasn’t (yet) where he had no other option but to bring the two.)

Nor would he be allowed to take Naruto with – and Sakura would point-blank refuse without him – considering his _status_.

The missions did their job though – allowed him to get them to be productive without feeling like he was risking life and limbs just by coming through the door whenever, _and_ earn them money to pay for three people and an apartment.

Whenever he went out of village for a short mission, he left her with instructions to focus on her agility, on being limber, to build a strong foundation for her evasion and dodging skills. He’d also left her a couple of kunai and shuriken for her to practice with to improve her aim, and for her to keep on her person for protection.

(He’d _not_ reacted well after he’d been informed of her _misadventure._

Not at all well when Shisui, having been engaging Sakura in what had quickly became a regular game of tag in the evenings whenever he was in-village, saw her go home with Asuma one day – after doing a little recon on the man – and had cornered the man and told him _all about it_.

Sakura had had half a mind to shave the curly fluff atop his head he was so proud of for deciding to mother-hen her – but the fact that Shisui had _cared_ enough to see if Asuma cared, well, it’d evened the scales a bit. It just meant that she made sure that his hair turned a few awful colors for a day or two for giving the man a right scare about something he could do nothing about.

The weapons were the least he’d wanted to give her though.)

She and Naruto had quite a bit of fun expanding their game of tag out beyond four walls to practice their dodging and evading – with a bit of a competition regarding their accuracy throwing weapons.

Her favorite bit though, was when after she’d asked about a basic storage seal, he’d helped her make while using his own sealing ink, a pair of basic storage seals on the insides of her wrists to hold a few weapons that were near impossible to take away from her.

(It had also helped her figure out seals on a practical level instead of just a theoretical, with the seals in the caverns a little too advanced for her to breakdown just yet. These storage seals were _the_ basic, and a good foundation to figure out anything more complex or to alter and tweak into something _more_.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may or may not be a adapted quote from LotR hidden in here.
> 
> Also, a wild Shisui sighting. X3


	30. Less than Simple Motives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4/25/28: minor edit regarding people throwing broken bottles

Sakura understood that there were some in the village that questioned Asuma’s loyalty after his stint away.

(It didn’t mean she didn’t hate it – she could understand why, with the fear of Orochimaru still potent and creeping in every shadow of the village, but there were better ways.

Better targets of suspicion.)

She wasn’t fool enough to think if they truly had a whisper of doubt about Asuma, that he would be _allowed_ to be around Naruto for more than a moment.

Instead fool-headed idiots just wanted to run him into the ground because he wouldn’t say no to a mission within a day’s travel of Konoha, and they wanted the coin.

It meant that she and Naruto spent quite a bit of time in the village without him, particularly as two-day, three-day missions for Asuma became more common.

(She wasn’t an idiot, she knew the same fool-headed idiots that were pressing for so many missions wanted to send him out on better-paying missions, but he would refuse those that took him away too long from them – from her – waiting for him at their home.

They would push the line as they impatiently waited for her ‘aunt and uncle’ to come back.)

She knew the chances of her being able to push the same deal for Naruto as she had with Asuma with her relatives was too small a hope, so instead she made _plans_.

(She poked and prodded and plied many of the merchants for information; built fledgling information networks with one purpose.

She let Naruto think it was just her playing at making a cover story – and not for _him_.)

The plans were for the future, a bit too far ahead for much to be done other than gathering information, and more something she wanted Naruto to know little about – in case it backfired _spectacularly_.

(If it backfired, it would backfire in the most tremendous way, and death wasn’t the worst outcome.

With what she was aiming for with the Second Identity Plan, and she was aiming high because nothing else would do for its purpose, it was the unknown quantities of the shadows in the village that was the real worrisome outcome. Best put, she would _disappear_.)

Instead, she focused on the more immediate future.

As she continued to raid the Archives for scrolls – now with the implicit permission of the Sandaime, she could legally check out C-rank scrolls, and B-rank theory scrolls if Asuma held possession of them and supervised.

(Most of those were for herself, but some of the D- and F-rank were to review basic concepts to combine with what things her mother had taught her, to teach Naruto. As despite being children of ninja, they might as well have been civilians, without clans to teach them the very basics before they entered the Academy; to not be left behind.

It didn’t take long for her to figure that he learned best interactively.)

Amongst the scrolls she made sure to find, were C-ranked medical ninjutsu.

(Naruto got into quite a few scraps because villagers were jerks and hated him, but most of the time, the wounds were superficial and healed quickly.

But one time, while Asuma was out on _another_ mission, some lucky asshole had clipped him with a thrown broken bottle and his head had been bleeding _bad_ , but the hospital had refused to heal him for such a wound.

In the moment, she was distracted by the sheer __amount of _blood_ running down his face, but later she gave the bastard his comeuppance.)

She frankly, wasn’t all that confident that if push came to shove, and a villager _seriously_ hurt Naruto, if the hospital would take care of him.

(She had thought that the ANBU that watched over him would stop it from ever getting that far, but there were days that the ANBU guard were apathetic and didn’t step in when they normally did.)

And while they’d learned from trial and error that Naruto healed _fast_ , it didn’t mean that the wound didn’t hurt, didn’t bleed. That if he took a wound _bad enough_ , he could still _die_.

Sakura may have accosted Asuma after he had come back from the two-day mission after that particular broken-bottle incident, and all but _made_ him teach her basic first-aid and help her search out the more complex first-aid scrolls to study.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I've been restructuring all of the previous-version's fourth chapter, and while I've been . . rewriting and adding in things, the i/thing does not end/.  
> It doesn't really hit you how i/long/ something is until you're twenty pages in of the new, broken-up chapter, and the original version has the same spot, same conversation, as five pages in for a twenty-page chapter.
> 
> I've added twenty-three pages in length to comparatively the same spot in the story. 'Chapter 27' is 64 pages in instead of 41 in a Word document.  
> Would this be where I admit I have a problem?
> 
>  
> 
> I blame Shisui and his need to have more screen time - his interludes have added ten pages alone.


	31. Naruto Interlude II

While Sakura could spend all day studying her scrolls, muttering as she scribbled her thousand and one theories of one thing or another, Naruto got bored and restless.

(They’d quickly worked out the deal that during the day between breakfast and mid-afternoon, they would play ‘games’ – thinly veiled training and mock-missions most times – so Naruto didn’t bounce off the walls with endless energy as he tried to drag Sakura away from her scrolls, and most times knock her paper everywhere.)

Tag was a favorite game.

(It was extra fun in both of their opinions when Shisui decided to drop in and add to their mayhem. With and without using his shunshin.

It was in Naruto’s opinion that Sakura enjoyed tackling him from a blind spot a little _too_ much.)

Ambush was another.

 _Ambush Tag_ was limited to once a week as it tended to get them yelled at by passer-by when they flung themselves down from great heights and laid elaborate traps throughout the village; trying to catch the other long enough to pin for the count of five.

(Sakura was quite proud of managing to teach Naruto the basics of strategy – as she’d seen him make some tactically _stupid_ decisions when he got into fights, and wanted him to at least know when it was best to retreat and regroup and when it was best to push the advantage.

He even managed to win about half of those games – particularly when she made the reward Ichiraku’s.)

Hide-and-seek was a daily event. Sakura flat-out refused to play any other games until they’d at least played two rounds.

(One round was reserved for her seeking through chakra sensing – and the other for tracking.)

Flash-race was the best – _particularly_ after they pulled a prank.

(Sakura had instigated that particular game mostly to screw with villagers’ heads to have a blonde blur running through the village – the speed training was an added bonus.)

Capture was reserved for once a month.

(That was because Sakura had been taken aside by the Sandaime for a brief chat about _not_ giving people – ANBU – heart attacks when it was her turn to ‘capture’ Naruto in a village-wide game where everything but lethal attacks were okay as long as it meant pinning and capturing the other.

 _Shisui_ may have also been wide-eyed – with a bit of red seeping in – when he’d interrupted Naruto’s turn to ‘capture’ her, and nearly put an end to it.

It had been Itachi that had pulled him back and said something about it was good practice for them.

The stipulation about continuing to do so was making sure that Shisui – and therefore the ANBU, but that was unspoken – knew beforehand.)

Most of their games were a competition against each other – nearly everything they did turned into a competition one way or another.

(Sakura preferred most games to be faux-training, because it made her feel productive when she hit a wall in any of her other projects, and was working towards a goal – becoming a shinobi of Konoha.

But there was _one_ game that they played for next to no training value.

Naruto had picked up a smooth river stone one day, brows pulled together as he stared at it.

He’d been quiet for a long moment, something sad and nostalgic in his gaze for something that he’d never done, before asking to skip stones.

Sakura had agreed in a heartbeat, and they dropped whatever they were doing to go play at the river in one of the Training Grounds – Naruto having led the way to the river that first time – whenever they found a stone.

She never told him she’d taken to caring a few in her pockets to ‘drop’ when it had been more than a few days since the last game.)


	32. Signs

Despite their success running pranks on seemingly random targets – it was never random; Sakura kept a very careful tally of all those she found were more vehement than others in their dislike of Naruto and fingered those she thought went too far – Sakura was worried.

Plans were great and all, a necessity even, but they all too easily went awry.

(There were little things that go array, like someone being somewhere they shouldn’t be a few minutes early.

Then there were larger things, like someone being somewhere they shouldn’t be, period.

It was a very big difference and their little signals just weren’t nuanced enough to cover that.)

She was already digging through dusty scrolls on codes anyway, and simply decided to teach them both shinobi hand-signs.

It was not only useful for their immediate use, but it would be a necessary component of their shinobi careers.

(If she skipped right over the really simple things the Academy taught as a universal basic code to all students, right to the Konoha-specific taught by jounin to their students, well, it was because they _were_ going to be shinobi, _not_ failures or traitors. They’d learn the ‘basics’ with the rest of their classmates.)

Naruto didn’t have the patience Sakura had, and didn’t pick up the older hand-signs that Sakura had learned, the ones from before the Second War and that were _elaborate_. She’d been beyond gleeful when she’d stumbled across an ancient scroll – with a faded kamon stamped on that _looked_ like it could be from the Senju – from the time of the Sage of Six Paths with _their_ hand-signs, showcasing a complex language far beyond the comparatively simple and rudimentary modern one.

(She was also very interested in the three different generations they seemed to have on record.

First generation was complex, entire strings of sentences in quick flicks of fingers and gestures and body language – elaborate and beautiful, and older than the village, closely related to the ancient one but less _flowery_.

Second generation was still complex, but had less grammar, less intricacy in favor of conveying concepts and ideas quickly – it seemed to have fallen out of use by the second war, dropped for the simpler one still in use.)

They – she – practiced on the ANBU watching Naruto, most particularly Hound, flashing basic hand-signs about their pranks where they could see, telling them – him – what they would do.

Depending on how ridiculous the prank was, and they’d tried some truly creatively ridiculous pranks _just for Hound’s reaction_ , they could startle the ANBU from his perch. The best of their pranks were the ones they managed to get the ANBU to snort or give a rough laugh because of.


	33. Pranks

Sakura and Naruto ran a lot of pranks.

(Naruto ran them because they were bored, doing so was fun, and he loved the attention.

Sakura liked to mutter about how the attention was not _good_ , that _any_ attention was _not good_ , but considering she was always doing so as they ran them anyway, he ignored that in favor of staring enraptured at the sight of a few genin in one of the Training Grounds setting off traps with explosive tags.)

They ran them _on_ deserving targets.

They ran them _because_ the prank itself wasn’t the only goal in play.

With the pranks – beyond the obvious chance to practice their trap-building skills – they also practiced how to gather information about their targets simply from listening in.

(Sakura went the extra step and was nurturing her fledgling information network, focusing on merchants and plying them for various pieces of information as she bought things.

To the point that they were beginning to tell her things of their own violation if she even slightly inquired to them.

It was _really easy_ to learn trade routes and geography around that when asking about how their last trip out-of-village went.)

They learned how to better track targets through the village; learned how to blend in and follow the slightest clues while staying out of sight.

More than once they learned the best way to infiltrate public buildings in tracking their victims.

(Sakura loved the chance to practice theories in a safe environment.

Naruto loved it because they were _doing_ something, not just talking about it.)

Then Sakura stumbled across a rather _delightful_ scroll detailing traps – all sorts and kinds and from all sorts of materials in all sorts of conditions – and they proceeded to spend the next week going through the scroll, reading it and testing some of them out, before the next month was dedicated to altering those thousand and one traps and making them their own.

When Asuma was next out on a mission outside the village, they snuck into one of the genin training grounds under a transformation jutsu, and had booby-trapped nearly every corner of it with their new traps. Then the next morning they’d dragged a half-awake Asuma to the area to watch perched from one of the few ‘safe’ areas – in a tree on the west side obscured in the darkness cast by the rising sun – as the jounin instructor innocently told their three genin to start their warm-ups only for traps to start going off.

Asuma had been caught somewhere between horrified at their ingenuity and amused at their many, _many_ mostly-harmless traps, and he’d quickly fled with them under his arms before they were caught even as Sakura was smothered Naruto’s chuckles.

(Shisui was the one cornered later that day to be complained to by Rat regarding them about the horror they caused with that little stunt, and was he _sure_ his devil of a cousin hadn’t been teaching anyone his tricks.

Then Rat asked if he wanted in on the bets flying around about who the two terrors would picks as the next target for the pranks – now with improved traps – and _how_ they would prank their poor victims.)


	34. Shisui Interlude VI

Shisui didn’t know when it became a Thing for the ANBU guard around Naruto – and by proximity, Sakura – to come complain to _him_ about What the Two Were Up To.

(He knew _when_.

The first time was not long after Sakura’s Misadventure, after she’d made the traitorous chuunin in the Archives snap.

Hound had cornered him to bitch about how Sakura had thrown a rice ball at Naruto when he’d spiked it with chili powder, and it had ended up splattered all over _his_ mask.

 _Why_ was still unfathomable.)

Hound often came around to bitch about the two – at how they made his job unnecessarily difficult. That it was hard to read the newest Icha Icha when he would blink and the two would find trouble – _make_ trouble – at the slightest inattention.

Cat just liked to regale him with their most impressive feats.

(Shisui had been so _proud_ when the two had managed to fling a paint ball a quarter of the way across the village right into the face of a pompous merchant who had spit on Naruto the week before.)

Rat just liked to complain about how the two were always up so _early_ , always so _energetic_ , and _by-the-Sage, Gai’s bad enough with that eye-catching spandex, but the Uzumaki boy had to one-up him with that orange monstrosity of a jumpsuit_.

He also wanted to know his opinion on the ever-evolving bet of who their next victim would be and how, so he could place _his_ bets because it seemed to have been unanimously accepted amongst ANBU that he knew the two best amongst them.

Hound, Cat, and Rat were his most regular visitors, catching him at all hours to tell him _all about what mischief they’d been up to_ , but the other ANBU did so too, just with less frequency.

(It was a general consensus, apparently, that they _hated_ when Sakura decided they were to play hide-and-seek.

Because the two knew the village inside-out _and_ knew all the best places to hide that even some of the ANBU hadn’t known of before, overlooking spaces because the two were so _small_ and could fit in those itty-bitty spots, and _occasionally_ lost their ANBU tail for a short while. Until they were able hone onto the great ball of fire that was Naruto’s chakra again.

No one could prove it, but there were a few that were _sure_ they were aware of what they were doing.

Shisui would have thought that they had crossed the line from healthy suspicion to over-worked paranoia, if he’d had any doubts that _Sakura_ didn’t know what she was doing. _She totally knew what she was doing_.)

Of course, the bitching and complaining wasn’t the end of it.

(He didn’t mind being kept abreast of what they were up to when he wasn’t around to keep on the two himself, running his own ANBU missions.

It just was hard to _not_ call Hound’s complaining _bitching_ , and not slip up in front of Rat, or it would be around the village in under an hour and he would need to make himself scarce before he was zapped to kingdom come.

It was bad enough that Itachi had yet to get his revenge for slipping up and calling him _Itachi-chan_ where Hana could hear, and he was jumping at every single opportunity Itachi could take, but didn’t, keeping him in suspense. He would _not_ be making the same mistake twice to a prodigy.)

Not when Asuma was assigned – and he didn’t have much of a choice to refuse with some still questioning his loyalty after his long absence – a mission longer than a week, four months after all-but-formally-adopting Sakura and Naruto – and most certainly in the eyes of the shinobi of the village, they’d been adopted, even if the civilians wouldn’t acknowledge it – and they proceeded to spend that time in the forest surrounding Konoha in a sort of survival training, pretending that there was no village because it was still the days of the Warring States.

(After it nearly gave him a heart attack at Sakura’s sudden disappearance, he might have found it amusing that Sakura fluctuated back and forth between pretending to be the Nidaime and being Uchiha Madara – while Naruto played often as the Shodaime.

If it hadn’t nearly given him a second heart attack considering how much she seemed to _know_ about his clan ancestor. Far more than was current public knowledge, as outside the Uchiha, the knowledge of Madara was kept quiet from all but those of the Sandaime’s generation, who remembered him personally. Because no one wanted to admit that the co-founder of the village, the one who had given them _their name_ , their _very identity_ with ‘ _the will of fire_ ’, had gone rogue and had been put down like a mad dog by the Shodaime.)

He was often dragged by one ANBU or another to stand watch over them as the another went to keep Sandaime constantly updated, as the older man worried and many of them were already doubling-back on patrols to keep a close eye on them anyway.

(No one talked about how they got him because he’d nearly flown into a panic when he hadn’t been able to find Sakura in the village early on, but it was acknowledged.)

They got him because it eased more than his mind, but theirs as well to know someone could stay there with the two kids and not be called away on duties they’d already been assigned and couldn’t trade out of.

Some days Shisui hoped whatever fucked-up Council member that still thought Asuma wasn’t fully committed, or was just being greedy, choked on their own tea for sending him out for these longer stints of time.

They were stressing out a good portion of the ANBU – the portion on guard duty for Naruto – and he for one, did _not_ much appreciate it.

Though, he was _pretty sure_ that those of the ANBU guard that were clan had already quietly discussed with their clan heads about the current state of affairs.

(Particularly considering that it was _only that once_ Asuma had gone on a mission longer than a week in the last two months.)


	35. Time Stops for No One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who remembered why Asuma stepped up for Sakura?  
> Because it's relevant again.
> 
> A bit of melodrama and angst for Sakura.

Six months Sakura lived with Asuma and Naruto.

They all had known their current state of affairs wasn’t permanent, not when Asuma had even stated _six months_ when he’d taken her and Naruto home, and that in the backs of their minds, they’d even been counting the days, but _six months_ had come and passed, and they’d started thinking maybe they could stay this way.

They were all happy, and while, yes, both Sakura and Asuma knew there would be problems _formally_ getting Naruto out of the Orphanage for good, they both knew that in terms of shinobi law, Asuma was at least their guardian and well on his way of claiming them as family.

Of course, at _six months, two weeks, and three days_ , they should have made sure it was _official_.

Because apparently, civilian law superseded unwritten shinobi law, when during breakfast, an ANBU showed up in their window and told them that there were an older civilian couple there for Sakura.

It had been ten months since her mother had died, ten months since she was turned away by the Haruno clan for the Orphanage, ten months before her father’s brother and his wife had returned to Konoha and wished to bring her into their home.

(Ten months ago, she would have gone with only a little bitterness that most of her father’s clan would turn her away with nowhere to go and no one caring.

Now she wanted nothing to do with them.

She wasn’t given much choice though; she was a child, and a civilian, without at least being in the Academy, so she had to bend to their rules. Naruto wasn’t invited in to the transfer of authority from Asuma to Haruno Hizashi.

 _Asuma_ wasn’t even present – sent out on a mission that would last at least a month, if not three, beyond the Land of Fire, by the same ANBU who’d arrived for her. Sent by a Council that had _leapt_ at Asuma’s sudden lack of obligations inside the village not even _minutes_ after, and surely had tossed around words like _don’t trust_ to ensure he went.)

It would have taken her five minutes to escape the ANBU who was oh-so-subtly escorting her, and to disappear into the belly of the village.

Five minutes to completely shed the identity of _Sakura_.

It would have been easy.

There was so _little_ holding up the identity, with her mother dead, no clan, Asuma gone for the foreseeable future, Shisui out on a mission for another week, and Naruto not listened to.

It would have been easy to shed everything about herself that made her _Sakura_ , easy to change her hair color, eye color, appearance – if it hadn’t meant _abandoning_ Naruto.

Naruto’s grief would have sold her disappearance completely, because if she _truly_ wanted her aunt and uncle to leave her the _fuck_ alone, it was best she was thought as good as dead, that she’d been _disappeared_.

(But she couldn’t do that to Naruto.

Couldn’t abandon him.

She was all he had.)

So instead, she bowed to the order, bent to civilian laws, and meekly left the Hokage Tower not as _Sakura, Ren’s daughter, kunoichi-in-training,_ but as _Sakura, civilian only child of Haruno Daisuke, ward of Haruno Hizashi and Mebuki_.


	36. Change is Complicated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last week was busier than it has been for me in a while. My birthday and my sister's high school graduation were within two days of each other, then going to a local Scottish Festival with Grandma on the weekend.  
> And I forgot to update in the midst of that.
> 
> Sakura is a bit melodramatic here.

Sakura didn’t do much those first few days of living with her father’s brother and his wife, carefully feeling them out and only showing the things they wanted.

They were unknowns, and she had no power here, couldn’t be sure if she could be herself like she had with Asuma and Naruto.

The Sandaime wouldn’t have put her in somewhere she would be hurt, but they were _civilian_.

Civilians were far less open-minded about what a girl child could and could not do. And as her guardians, they still had the power of refusing to let her become a shinobi, let her be friends with Naruto, let her have Asuma in her life.

If she played this the wrong way, she could be banned from everything and everyone she loved without anyone being able to do anything about it, because unless there was actual danger to her well-being, even the Hokage couldn’t interfere in the civilian way of life.

(She was afraid that they would cut her loose – and she had no safety net.

Asuma was out of the village. Shisui was an Uchiha, and she was from a civilian clan, his clan head would see no benefit from making her a ward unless she showed a _hell-of-a-lot_ of potential.

The chuunin currently in charge of the Orphanage for this week had already told her that, despite having children _years_ older than her still there, she was ‘old enough’, at just shy of seven, to fend for herself if she was unwilling to stop her association with ‘that damn fox’ – to stop associating with _Naruto_ – if she got herself kicked out of her uncle’s house.

She was afraid that even if Asuma got back quickly, that he wouldn’t take her off the streets.

That he wouldn’t be _allowed_ to, because it would mean Naruto would go with her, and he would _formally_ adopt them so even civilian law couldn’t separate them so easily again.

Then she could _really_ be _disappeared._ )

As it was, she very nearly left their house not more than a day with them.

Because Naruto had spent most of the last six months away from the Orphanage, having barely been there for curfew most nights, and the Council – the mostly civilian part – had pulled out some long-forgotten technicality no one had enacted in decades; if a child went six months without being present for at least two meals and for curfew, with evidence of their own income, they no longer needed the support of the Orphanage.

It meant, that having all but lived with Asuma and her, working periodically at Ichiraku’s, that those _assholes_ claimed he was ‘old enough’ to make it on his own in their eyes.

It didn’t matter that without Asuma there to, in the open-secret they had been functioning with between them and the mission room, pick up D-ranks for them to complete, he most certainly didn’t have the income capable of supporting himself.

After three days, she was _seconds_ from walking out on not just her uncle, but debating whether it was worth still living in _Konoha_ if it was _determined_ to shit on Naruto and make his life as difficult as possible.

(Because the Council had forbade Sandaime from paying for an apartment for Naruto, even with his own money as head of the Sarutobi. Claiming it would be favoritism if he went the extra mile this way for Naruto but didn’t for the other orphans.)

At this point, she lingered as she thought of the most _fitting_ retribution for those douchebags on the Council, so she could enact it with a final hurray before leaving with Naruto.

She wouldn’t allow this to continue if they were to stay. Otherwise, she would just stall for time so she could have the funds and the necessary supplies for them to survive outside the village for long enough to be able to get more funds one way or another.

(She lingered because she didn’t want to leave _people_ , and neither of them were back yet and she couldn’t say _good-bye_.

She hadn’t gotten the chance to say _good-bye­_ to her mother, having been asleep when her mother had left that morning so long ago, and she wouldn’t do _that_ to them.

It would take someone much crueler than her to do that.)

She was willing to forsake her loyalty to Konoha in favor of her loyalty for Naruto, because he was left to live on the streets.

(It was only thanks to their love of hide-and-seek, that he knew the best places to hide to get a few hours of sleep during the night where no one would disturb him.

Where he was unlikely to be _disappeared_ because she’d provided an ample selection of perches for his shadows to stand guard over him during the night.

And she’d pointed out which merchants would be friendly to him thanks to his association with her, and who would give him food that wasn’t ‘good enough to sell’ to help him as they figured out the funds needed to support him.)

Sakura tried to help him as much as she could. She found him an old tatami mat to sleep on, with some blankets, from the spare room in her uncle’s house. She made him bentos whenever she could, so he got at least one meal assured for the day.

(She may have cornered Teuchi in the earliest part of his morning, just as he was setting up for the day, and pushed for him to give Naruto any ‘mistakes’, any ‘leftovers’, anything he couldn’t or didn’t sell for the day.

Then asked if he was willing to hire Naruto as a dishwasher in the evenings.

The man had rapidly agreed.)

Her aunt had _not_ reacted well when she found out that it hadn’t been a stray dog that she’d been taking care of.

That it had been _Naruto_ she’d been doing her best to take care of.

Mebuki had fainted briefly upon finding out, then had screamed hysterically at her husband about how that ‘damn fox’ was tainting _their_ little girl.

(It was luck that neither were looking at her when the woman said that, because her lip had curled and she had been unable to help the anger showing on her face for their dismissal of her mother.)

Her uncle had responded to his wife’s hysteria by being very solemn, very resolute as he’d addressed her – and banned her from associating in any manner with Naruto. Then had proceeded to ground her to their home, and that she would be unable to go anywhere not accompanied by her aunt, who made it very clear by how in just seeing blonde spikes in a crowd, would turn the other way and take a long scenic route to wherever she was going instead of spending even two minutes in Naruto’s vicinity.

Considering how good Naruto and her had gotten at breaking _into_ things, it hadn’t been too hard to turn those skills to breaking _out_.

Naruto, having believed he’d gotten his only friend in trouble because that was all he’d been told he _was_ , had then tried to avoid her when she went looking for him at the soonest opportunity.

 _Tried_ to avoid her, because he’d made the attempt to hide from her, and she’d spent an entire night hunting him down – to the great amusement of Naruto’s ANBU watch-dog who’d snickered about a _pink devil_ just out of sight but not hearing – until she’d whacked him a couple of times to get it through his thick head that _he was her friend, and come hell or high water, they would have to drag her dead body from his side before she stopped being his friend_.

He had smiled then, his smile bloody after his nose had hit the ground hard from where she’d tackled him to the ground to finally catch him. Then had told her that when the next group of kids started at the Academy, he would be going thanks to the old man.


End file.
